Work to remove the bike lanes on Bloor Street West is set to begin next week.
A spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria confirmed to CTV News that the removal will start on Tuesday.
The Ford government previously announced the bike lanes on Bloor Street West in Etobicoke would be the first to be ripped out after the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in August that it could proceed with its removal plans.
The province is also removing bike lanes along Yonge Street and University Avenue. Last month, the government issued a request for proposals to study and provide options for restoring vehicle lanes along those three major roadways.
- How to set CP24 as your preferred source on Google
- How to set CTV News as your preferred source on Google
Michael Longfield, with CycleTO, said the group is “outraged but not surprised” with the latest development.
Longfield said he was disappointed that the province won’t take up Mayor Olivia Chow’s “win-win” offer to restore car lanes while maintaining the bike lanes.
“It’s not very clear now why the province isn’t taking her up on that offer and instead just choosing to remove these bike lanes,” he said in an interview with CP24.
“I think a lot of people are quite confused actually on that, and it seems to belie everything else that the minister and the premier have been saying about not being against bike lanes and trying to make solutions that work for everybody because this won’t work for a lot of people that are already biking out in Etobicoke.”
Longfield said his group is still reviewing the Court of Appeal’s decision and mulling whether to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“We’re confident that despite what the premier is trying to do now, the future of Etobicoke does have bike lanes,” he said.
The government passed legislation in 2024 that enabled it to remove the bike lanes, but a lower court ruling in 2025 stopped it from proceeding, ruling it as a violation against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The province appealed the ruling, and a three-judge panel with the Court of Appeal for Ontario unanimously found that “the Ontario legislature is as free to establish bicycle lanes as it is to remove them or authorize their removal.”
Ford had blamed the bike lanes for contributing to increased traffic in Toronto and vowed to get the city moving again.
With files from CTV News Toronto’s Queen’s Park Bureau Chief Siobhan Morris and The Canadian Press
