Transportation
In Traffic-Weary Toronto, a Battle Breaks Out Over Bike Lanes
Ontario’s government has vowed to tear up newly installed cycling infrastructure, stoking tensions between the city and its suburbs over rider safety and congestion.
Photographer: Curtis Heinzl/Bloomberg
At the evening rush hour in downtown Toronto last week, Victor Perelman stopped his bicycle at the intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets and explained his mission: He was going to ride the full length of all the bike lanes that Ontario Premier Doug Ford had just promised to rip up.
“I see young people, old people, people with trailers behind their bikes, people with their children on kids’ bikes,” Perelman said of his fellow cyclists, “and this government just wants to push them all out into the road for their political expedience.”