Editor’s Letter: How bike lanes became a scapegoat for all of Toronto’s traffic angst

When is a bike lane more than a bike lane? When it’s in Toronto. In her reporting on this fraught subject, Kate Lunau heard a common refrain from the anti camp: “Look, it’s not that we’re opposed to bike lanes...” I believe them. Who opposes pavement? And who has it out for cyclists? Really, what they’re saying is that they’re opposed to gridlock, chronic lateness and the paroxysms of road rage that have become an inexorable part of our daily lives.

Anyone with a frontal lobe knows that modern cities shouldn’t rely on cars as residents’ main mode of transport. Think about how people navigate New York, London or Tokyo. It takes will, vision and money to design functional cities. Boston spent nearly $15 billion on its “Big Dig,” burying traffic underground and adding a new transit network. Scandal-plagued and over-budget though it was, the project dragged Boston out of the past and set it up for the future.

In Toronto, bike lanes are one piece of a similar transformation, intended to elevate our city from a place where the car is king to one where there are multiple quick, safe, convenient alternatives—a place where everyone, no matter their salary or postal code, considers the subway, streetcar and bicycle not just sensible but preferred.

Getting to that point can be painful. I met someone recently who referred to this transition period in every city’s life as the “awkward teenage years.” If that’s the case, consider us gangly, covered in spots and prone to mood swings. Unfortunately, what’s gone awry in Toronto’s coming-of-age is that politicians keep swapping out car lanes for bike lanes before other attractive alternatives are in place.

Take a streetcar? They are achingly slow, infrequent and limited in their reach. The subway? It’s ghastly, un­reliable and often packed cheek to backpack to puffy parka. When I took my kids to the ROM not long ago, we got stuck between stations for 20 minutes without explanation. And then, in the elevator (I had a stroller), two men got in a shoving match. Hop on a bike? It’s cold, wretched and dangerous out there. And showing up to a business lunch in slush-spackled dress pants makes for a poor first impression. Which leaves the stubborn automobile as the least-bad option.

The locus of the current conflict is Bloor West, where bike lanes have replaced two car lanes. That’s a contentious stretch because it connects left-leaning, pro-bike west enders to right-leaning, pro-car Etobicoke. The latter group thought traffic was bad before; now it’s worse, and they’ve had it.

So when the premier, in an effort to score political points, singles out bike lanes as the source of Toronto’s traffic woes, it’s rage-bait catnip. Exhibit A: the guy who drew up T-shirts emblazoned with “Fuck Bike Lanes.” So far, he’s sold some 300 at $30 apiece. (What have we become?)

Bike lanes aren’t the culprit. Do they slow traffic? Yes, a little, at first. But an extensive network, combined with other non-car modes of transit, gets people out of their cars, which gets everyone moving faster. It’s short-term pain for potentially enormous gain. But, oh, the pain.

The question is how much longer the horrors of this civic puberty will last. Metrolinx says the Eglinton Crosstown will open “soon,” but we’ve heard that one before. And the Ontario Line won’t be ready until 2031 at the earliest. In the meantime, cyclists and motorists will keep fighting, not realizing they aren’t enemies.

Malcolm Johnston is the editor of Toronto Life. He can be reached via email at editor@torontolife.com.