For cycling advocate Jess Spieker, it is not a question of if, but when the province’s planned removal of bike lanes on Bloor Street will kill innocent people.
Having nearly died of head and spine injuries after being struck by an SUV while riding her bike down Bathurst Street near Eglinton Avenue in 2015, Spieker sees Premier Doug Ford’s decision to remove bike lanes on some of Toronto’s main streets as a death sentence for cyclists.
“What the provincial government is pursuing here is inevitably going to get people killed. It is guaranteeing violent, horrific, preventable death to innocent people,” Spieker told Humber Et Cetera.
Ford will “have blood on his hands, and that blood will never wash off. We will never forget, and you will never be forgiven,” she said.
Hundreds of cyclists successfully stopped construction crews from carrying out scheduled work to remove about 1.2 kilometres of bike lanes on Bloor Street in Etobicoke on Tuesday night.
But bike lane removal work officially began Wednesday afternoon as construction crews returned, accompanied by a much larger police presence than the night before.
Crews and police were met with dozens of protesters, who chanted, shouted, and rang bells, but did not physically resist when police and crews moved in.
Dozens of workers in white hard hats and neon high-visibility vests used hammers, crowbars and power tools to dislodge the concrete dividers that lined the lanes. They started just west of Islington Avenue and are working west toward Royal York Road.
The protest came just hours after Cycle Toronto, the group responsible for a recently struck-down constitutional challenge of the province’s decision to remove bike lanes on several main streets in Toronto, announced it is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The challenge, initially launched by the group in December 2024, argued that Bill 212, the legislation empowering the province to remove bike lanes, is a Charter violation under Section 7.
While the Ontario Superior Court initially ruled in the group’s favour, the province successfully appealed the decision in June of this year, giving the province the green light to begin removing the lanes.
Cycle Toronto was one of several cycling advocacy groups present at Tuesday’s rally.
Shortly before 8 p.m. Oct. 13, four trucks marked “ATS Traffic” carrying dozens of orange traffic cones left the area of Green Lanes and Bloor Street as the bike-riding protesters who had been surrounding them for the previous hour chanted, sang, and rang their bells.
According to the City of Toronto website, nightly road closures on Bloor for “removal of asphalt and line marking” were set to begin Tuesday between Clissold Road and Royal York Road.
The website lists Bolton, Ont.- based construction firm Alliance Verdi Civil Inc. as the contractor responsible for the work associated with the closure.
While Tuesday’s protest wasn't organized by a central group, lawyer David Shellnut, also known as “The Biking Lawyer,” directed the protesters throughout the evening, communicated directly with police on scene, and addressed the media alongside Spieker in a short conference before the protest started.
Shellnut does not believe the government’s argument that removing bike lanes will ease traffic.
“There is a lack of honesty about whether this is a solution for congestion. It is important that people show up tonight and voice their displeasure,” Shellnut said.
For one area resident, however, bike lanes have no place on major streets. The resident, who asked to be identified only as “Jane”, doesn’t see the lanes getting enough use to justify their existence.
“These lanes, they reek of elitism,” Jane told Humber Et Cetera.
“Why should they get their own lane? I only see one or two of them when I’m out on Bloor in the mornings, and half the time they’re just riding on the sidewalk,” she said.
A 2024 study by Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition counted 694 cyclists using the Bloor bike lanes at Royal York Road over a 24-hour period on May 23 of that year.
Humber electrical engineering student Candice Doe’s custom-built bicycle was unmissable in the crowd, complete with cellphone charging ports, speakers, pink Christmas lights, and a programmable LED sign towering above the crowd of chanting cyclists.
As the construction trucks peeled off into the unseasonably warm October night, her LED sign, much to the delight of the crowd of protesters, read “BIKE LANES BELONG ON BLOOR, DOOFUS.”
Doe’s message for Doug Ford? “Stay in your lane.”
The driver of one of the trucks, who wished to remain unnamed, was expecting a normal evening at work.
“If I had known this was happening today, I would have stayed home,” the driver said, as the celebratory crowd chanted “ask for a raise” at him.
While Tuesday’s protest was a success for bike lane supporters, the province remains committed to the scheduled lane removal despite the threat of a Supreme Court showdown.
In a statement posted to X shortly after the protest concluded, Ontario Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria reiterated the province’s stance.
“Work to restore vehicle lanes on Bloor Street West was scheduled to begin tonight but was halted by protesters. Make no mistake: these bike lanes are coming out. We have a clear mandate, and we will deliver,” Sarkaria said in the statement.
Protesters are expected to attempt to stop construction crews on Bloor every night this week.
