Workers began removing the Bloor Street bike lanes near Islington on Wednesday morning, resuming the Ontario Premier Bike Lane Dispute after protests the day before delayed the work. The stretch under the equipment runs for 1.2 kilometres west of Royal York Road.
The province ordered the city to remove the lanes, and the planned rip-out covers 19 kilometres in total. For people using Bloor Street West, that means the dismantling has moved from a court fight into a street-level change already under way.
Cycle Toronto and the Supreme Court of Canada
Cycle Toronto said on Tuesday that it is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada after the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned a lower court judge's finding of a constitutional right to bike lanes. That appeal step keeps the legal dispute alive even as workers keep pulling out the pavement markings and barriers on the street.
The court ruling left the province's removal order in place, which is why the work could start while the challenge advances. The fight now turns on whether the highest court will agree to hear the case, not on whether the province has already moved crews onto Bloor Street.
Rosie DiManno and the street fight
Rosie DiManno called the bike-lane battle “The entitlement of cycling crusaders knows no bounds” and wrote that it was leaving her deflated. She also wrote, “follow that bike!” after ordering the Uber driver to do so, then added, “I’m just as ready to do battle with ignorant, nasty, entitled drivers.”
That mix of frustration matters because it shows how the same street can be read very differently from the sidewalk, the bike lane and the car lane. DiManno also used the phrase “war on cars,” while the removal proceeds on a corridor where cyclists, businesses, commuters and perambulators are all affected by the same physical change.
By Wednesday morning, the province had already started on the 1.2-kilometre section and said the wider plan covers 19 kilometres. The practical question now is how much of that larger removal had been completed before crews reached Islington, because that answer tells riders and nearby businesses how quickly the rest of Bloor Street West will change.
