Nobody would drive anywhere if the roads just stopped and started at random like cycle infrastructure does. The fact so many people still cycle despite the actively hostile infrastructure should maybe be taken as a sign that joining it up will cause a dramatic increase in cycling with the attendant improvement in quality of life for everyone - including the carbrains who don't realise that every cyclist they see is one less car blocking their progress.
On top of the very valid safety considerations, it’s also about the question, what kind of city do we want? I dream of a city with way fewer cars, reliable and attractive transit options, along with bike friendly streets and paths. I say this as a senior who can no longer ride a bike for medical reasons. I wish you well. Please keep the vision and never give up the fight.
Automotive ownership resulting in more taxable exchange of currency, is higher priority than quality of life, by the measures of capitalistic governance.
Sorry but cyclist seems dosent know a huge city like Toronto works & all the need millions people need, all the services we need, the apple dosent come from the trees to your table etc..first i see most of the cyclist dosent respect light or stop signs, + they think the road belong to them, when i was a kid, my mom told me to watch when i cross the street, there is a reason, always bigger than a human, my sister walking get hit from cyclist? she was in the way apparently, no matter what walk, ride or drive i am aware of bigger than me, bcuz is going to be me who's is going to suffer is not rocket science, second, vehicule safety are doing a lot of progress for pedestrian alert, cyclist alert bcuz human factor, sun factor, heart attack while driving, mechanical issue, i drive & i get cut often, i dont make a big story, i saw more vehicles than cyclist, some bike lane are totally empty? i understand some area bike are more usufull, its easier for a bike to ride anywhere than vehicules, why can you cyclist use quiet street, Doug got a point about emergency service, if you cyclist live on bloor & your house is on fire & becuz bike lane each side, fire fighter can not reach you in time, you might die.....if you dont like vehicules go live in a quiter city :) no one force you to live here, i see a lot of zombies everyday, I love Toronto & Doug Ford is a business men. he care for Ontario people, he was not the first to close the border when covid arrived.....stay alert, chill, dont chew for nothing life is too short ? enjoy!!!
@@aldosano841 AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIE-beral politicians dream of a world where PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF ANY SORT OF MOTOR VEHICLE IS BANNED and such a view will end up getting them THROWN OUT OF OFFICE EVENTUALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And these bicycle evangelists are a CRACKPOT LUNATIC FRINGE who dream of becoming tinpot dictators and tyrants telling the rest of us HOW TO LIVE AND WHERE TO LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great video of the Toronto bike community banding together to fight this. There were so many people there that we didn't even see you, but it's a good thing when a crowd of cyclists is that big!
I agree. I think that cyclists need to lobby the local governments to sue the provincial government. The mayors need to humiliate the provincial government.
I cycled 2000km this year so far, I lived on Spadina ave since 2005, went through 6-7 bikes in 20 years. I support ford decision. Not all bike lanes make sense in Toronto. Bloor st w pass royal york, there is very little traffic. I cycled there in October twice, the only other cyclists I saw were Indian delivery drivers on their e bikes. And new approved bike lane in parkside doesn’t make sense either. Cyclist can use high park. University used to have 4 lanes, now it’s only 2. That’s ridiculous. On the other hand, Bike lane on college st, St. George makes a lot more sense. They don’t cut into existing lanes. And Spadina traffic is as terrible as ever. I am actively searching for a new house in Vaughan, traffic downstairs is one of the reasons that I wanna move.
@@thejeffinvade Do you know that Ford's bill plans for the removal of ALL of Bloor Street's bike lanes? Even the extremely busy section in old Toronto? This is not just about the new section past Royal York. Also, the lanes there are new - more people will use them as time goes on, just like the lanes downtown. And delivery drivers deserve bike lanes too! BTW, University Ave. still has 6 lanes total for cars - 4 for moving cars, 2 for parked cars. And traffic moves perfectly great (I travel on this street regularly). We never needed an 8 lane highway in downtown Toronto, though all 8 lanes were never drivable anyway, because of cars parked and pulled over.
@ 1, I drive on university every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Trust me, the traffic is worse than before. 2, university used to have 4 lanes: 3 lanes for cars, 1 for both parked cars and cyclists. I cycled there constantly since I studied in uoft for both my undergrad and graduate degrees. Now the car traffic only has two lanes. And you have to consider the turning lane before the intersection. Now cars that are turning right will block one extra lane of traffic, like at elm st intersection, reducing thru traffic to 1 lane, creating a bottleneck situation.
@@thejeffinvade, you cycled, and now that you're driving 4 days/week (probably solo in a polluting machine that occupies the space of more than 6 cyclists), you've gotten a "car brain" biased in favour of your own privileges. The problem with cars, and i own one which i do not use in the city anymore, is that their numbers are generally increasing more rapidly than the population of North American cities. The only way to reduce traffic is through "traffic evaporation", e.g.: measures that encourage people to either leave their cars home, or decide not to buy a 1st or 2nd car for their household, as opposed to "induced demand" (that irrational 20th century political reflex of adding more car lanes in the vain hopes that it'll solve the issue, though it NEVER does alleviate congestion in the middle or long term). Traffic evaporation requires consolidating public transit services and adding more convenient options, on top of adding (a lot more) bike infrastructure, as direct as possible (rather than through multiple detours on local streets and hurdles when they cross major arteries), as is being done in Montréal with amazing results: massive cyclist traffic on a growing number of protected bike lanes!
I am a Montrealer, I hope you guys/gals in Toronto prevail and expand your cyclists path, and don't forget to give your premier a bike, he can benefit from doing more bike.
Using driver convenience over bicyclists' safety as political distraction to sneak through a new highway is inexcusable. Keep up the good work, Toronto bicyclists! We are rooting for you!
It will be very inconvenient for drivers when they have to drive behind cyclists at their pace when traffic would have been otherwise good. Bring back bike lanes and encourage work from home and traffic should improve.
@@newmobile1455….I drive and I walk, but I don't ride a bicycle, mainly because I consider bicycling exercise and I prefer to be on my feet while exercising. I walk/ hike 2-3 hours a day with my Shepherd Dog, my loyal companion. Most days we will drive to the various trailheads around us, but not generally further than 7 km. My mailbox is a long hop, skip, and a jump, not an issue. Everyone in my circle drives, we are all a little different from each other. We have all decided to spend our daily energy as we see fit. None of us are lazy. I would say we are all pretty much pragmatic and all lead busy lives. The majority of my social circle live, as I do, in the countryside a fair distance from a city. Owning and operating a vehicle is a necessity to us. Ironically, I spend less time in my truck than I did when I lived in the city, a place that I was constantly wanting to distance myself from, so here I am.
And I repeat the same as i told here in Brazil if the problem is with the traffic take the cars out from the street and use bike or make a decent public transport that works properly Good luck friends All the support from Brazil
Sorry but cyclist seems dosent know a huge city like Toronto works & all the need millions people need, all the services we need, the apple dosent come from the trees to your table etc..first i see most of the cyclist dosent respect light or stop signs, + they think the road belong to them, when i was a kid, my mom told me to watch when i cross the street, there is a reason, always bigger than a human, my sister walking get hit from cyclist? she was in the way apparently, no matter what walk, ride or drive i am aware of bigger than me, bcuz is going to be me who's is going to suffer is not rocket science, second, vehicule safety are doing a lot of progress for pedestrian alert, cyclist alert bcuz human factor, sun factor, heart attack while driving, mechanical issue, i drive & i get cut often, i dont make a big story, i saw more vehicles than cyclist, some bike lane are totally empty? i understand some area bike are more usufull, its easier for a bike to ride anywhere than vehicules, why can you cyclist use quiet street, Doug got a point about emergency service, if you cyclist live on bloor & your house is on fire & becuz bike lane each side, fire fighter can not reach you in time, you might die.....if you dont like vehicules go live in a quiter city :) no one force you to live here, i see a lot of zombies everyday, I love Toronto & Doug Ford is a business men. he care for Ontario people, he was not the first to close the border when covid arrived.....stay alert, chill, dont chew for nothing life is too short ? enjoy!!!
@@robgrey6183 yes, but i'm not really criticising people like you who have a genuine need. I'm criticising those selfish morons who are fit, healthy, don't need to carry anything much, can walk their journey in 15 minutes, but STILL drive.
@@robgrey6183 Also bs, there are way more ways that lead to rome without coming up with excuses. This is the same as to say, but I got two children in diapers so I have to take the car. Why, in the netherlands all mothers do that? have two children on the back and another one on the steer. Amuricans are actually just little brats that don't get what they want, fast enough.
@@robgrey6183if more commuters are riding bikes, there is less congestion for those who actually need vehicles to move stuff. FFS. Do you think roads will all be dug up? Do you have to have 100% of every road? 99.9% isn't enough?
Something else going on also, because very difficult to find this video on TH-cam. And impressed at the turnout even though the temp has plummeted. Would be ten times more riders if it was warmer.
@@tryink688 I wouldn't worry too much... I am a small account and don't get much play on the algorithm! Thanks for finding it and absolutely, it would be bigger in warmer weather. The timing of this law is not accidental.
Hey great u are riding, but the bill as reads from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website talks more about building new highways and car centric infrastructure and forcing or expediting any and all processes needed to force the new construction of highways, similar to how laws of the past have been written, when seemingly a main goal was to social isolate classes (and by extension further marginalizing communities of what are often minorities, or disabled people). It even goes so far as to make ecological studies unnecessary so as to reduce as many regulations as possible, and making it far easier to just take people's land to construct this.
Yes, I am aware of all this. However we have the fight the battles that affect us personally too. While I wish there were large rallies against the 413-related parts of the bill, and would be there in a minute, the bike lane removals matter in a direct manner to me and those around me. And so we are pushing back on that aspect.
Thanks for documenting this. We are actually making history. I don’t know of any city in the world that is removing their biggest and most popular bike lanes. I see this as an opportunity to fix a few last things before going all out with more bike lanes. Drivers were left out of discussions on bike lanes by 2 key groups. We can fix that. When bike lanes were first discussed, cyclists talked about them with other cyclists. Then we engaged key city officials in order to get them built. But cyclists didn’t spend the same quality time discussing bike lanes with drivers. For the part of drivers, a lot of them just went about their lives thinking bike lanes are for bikes so it has nothing to do with them. Until they got installed through their neighbourhood. Then they noticed. But instead of painstakingly bringing them up to speed on traffic planning, cyclists kind of said, we had to fight hard to get the first ones in so now it’s your turn to suck it up and let us have our way. We didn’t really engage drivers explaining the benefits to drivers or to invite them to ride bikes. And that invited a lot of the current backlash. A lot of drivers never saw the value of bike lanes and saw them as getting in the way of drivers, especially on the busiest streets. The other people who left drivers in the dark was city officials regarding car congestion. The city’s methods for reducing congestion include tweaking traffic light timing, sending out traffic cops to shoo drivers through busy intersections, and fly drones over congestion / use computer programs to model congestion and anticipate causes and cures. Consider each of these approaches, how much they will affect city wide congestion. They are band aid solutions to a systemic problem that begs for general system wide approaches. So let’s look at the most common general approach to reducing car congestion. All methods fall into one of two categories. Increase the streets / highways / traffic system’s capacity to handle more cars or reduce how much we collectively drive. Raising the LEVEL OF SERVICE of a street increases capacity to move more cars. That includes removing a bike lane to replace it with a car lane, like what the Conservative government wants to do. So on Bloor, we double Bloor Street’s capacity to move cars, going from one car lane each way to two. Bingo! All our problems are solved! The problem with this is we’ve been increasing the capacity of streets and highways for over 100 years. And there is only so much more we can do with this method before we can’t do any more. So what was a system wide general solution to congestion has become a band aid solution. Doubling the capacity of Bloor, University and Yonge does not significantly increase the city’s overall capacity to move cars. So a short time after the bike lanes are removed congestion will ease. But then it will be as bad as or worse than before. Traffic was bad before the bike lanes were installed. And the Ontario government has no intention to put the bike lanes back if it turns out they were wrong, they have no interest in measuring congestion now or after the mike lanes get removed. They are just going on gut instinct, what seems logical to them, what they see and hearing complaints from other drivers. Anyway. Something that does have a big effect is reducing driving. Inviting people out of their cars and riding a bike is one of the reasons for bike lanes. Cyclists say one more bike means one less car. That directly affects car congestion. But it’s less congestion on highways, not just local streets. The city hasn’t talked about this with drivers. Drivers are the ONLY stakeholders in congestion because they get stuck in it. And it’s their cars and trucks which make up congestion. So they have the right to be in on the discussions about it. The result is drivers always blame the government. Leaving them out is like how a helicopter mom always gets blamed for their child’s problems. It was set up like this. Drivers will want to know: 1 How bad is it? How do we measure it? 2 How much does it affect us? 3 What causes it? 4 Cures? 5 As a driver, how can I avoid it? The biggest reason for driving is you can come and go as you please, you don’t need to wait for a bus that may never come. Not informing drivers how to avoid congestion strips them of their autonomy. Not having a way to measure it means everything becomes gridlock even if it’s 3 cars waiting at a red light. These two groups, cyclists and city traffic planners left drivers in the dark for no good reason. Now that they are mad, it might be even harder for them to listen, especially when they think they are getting what they want. The bike lanes are scheduled to go. But what will help is for cyclists to peacefully stand up for themselves like at bike rallies and for cyclists to meet drivers one on one, get to know each other, and both listen to each other. Often people who oppose bike lanes, let them talk long enough and they will talk about reasons to keep them. I spoke with a man who was a condo developer. I kept saying I want to hear more. Then he said I have three adult sons. All of them bike. And I’m concerned for their safety. I said we agree on this. Bike lanes make this street (happened to be Sheppard) much safer for cyclists. If I just argued and walked away in a huff he never would have told me about his sons. But I’m glad he did. That’s as personal as it gets, concern for your own family’s safety. We need to talk a lot with drivers. Then we’ll win.
Drivers mostly circle back to a desire to feel safe, & to most of the US exhibiting a general unavailability of truly practical alternatives. Once passenger-rail was removed & paved at great cost, it became _even more costly & difficult_ to restore rail services. Even when attempted, the frequency & interconnectivity need to be very high, such that it's easy to spend a lot of money creating a spectacle of a failure. Without safe high-speed transit for long distances, that general automotive dependency continues to interfere with safe & enjoyable bicycling, walking, & other modes of transit. Unfortunately, pointing out that almost every highway & every stroad with four lanes in a single direction, ought better to have a high-frequency rail service & traffic _slowing_ measures (such as trees (including female)) along it, tends to be a _very_ hard sell, even when taking the "discussion" one person at a time.
Like the US, Canada needs a new progressive party that isn't beholden to big business, big auto, and big oil. People really have no idea how much money is involved in the automobile and supporting industries. Oil drilling / refining into gasoline /delivery / gas stations, metals mining / smelting / processing / logistics, parts production / logistics, auto assembly / logistics / dealerships / service / recycling, factory and machinery construction, insurance / registration, cement production, construction to build and maintain all of the road infrastructure, traffic signal and signage, police road enforcement, fire services trained to deal in car accidents and fires, healthcare to deal with the huge numbers of auto related casualties. etc... Millions upon millions upon millions of jobs. People working for auto related industries just so they can afford their cars and fuel to transport themselves from their homes which are far away from their jobs and city centers... It may as well be digging ditches. Sure, people can dig ditches their entire lives with nothing really to show for it so long as there's no major side effect, however, when it comes to automobiles, there are major side effects. High volumes of traffic casualties and much much worse... climate change which could quickly destroy the lives of billions of human beings around the world and make life both harder and more expensive for everyone. It's funny that EVs are getting such huge tax credits, all in a bid to maintain the status quo of off the charts car ownership and resource use. These cars are marketed as saving the environment... only costing us $30k-$50k+ (after taxpayer funded credits)for the priviledge , plus high annual registration and insurance costs. Meanwhile, electricity prices continue to increase, so whether they actually save money over gas in the long run is an unknown. Meanwhile, transportation like bicycles, that truly lower transportation based fatality rates (excluding when cars run over cyclists) and cause significantly less pollution and resource use, they get no credits or benefits at all. What bicyclists get instead is a struggle to get even simple protections on road ways to protect their very lives. I guess if the government wants to prop up big oil, big auto, big car insurance, etc... the best way is to put down the bicyclist movement by allowing cars to literally run over the bikers. To make biking so dangerous as to be unthinkable. Ford isn't worried about bike lanes slowing down car traffic... he's worried about more people replacing cars or even car miles with bikes. By replacing miles, you extend the life of the car and reduce the sale of new cars, and you reduce the sale of oil. As oil demand drops, so do gas prices. Even a 1-2% drop in oil demand can lead to significant reductions in gas prices. Now consider what a 20%...40%...80%...etc... reduction in gas use could do.
The irony is all the complaints about skyrocketing housing prices due to lack of housing availability. Part of that is due to a lack of space in cities, on account of so much space being taken up by all the car infrastructure. Roads and parking lots. Certainly, you can't just downsize a road and replace it with an apartment or a house in all cases, but you can certainly do it in many cases. Replacing a 2x1x2 roadway with a bike lane that takes up the lane of 2 car lanes would leave 3 car lanes to add shops to. Shops that previously took up space at the bottom of apartment buildings; space that can now be repurposed into apartments, in regions that are highly sought after due to their walkability and bike-ability, and no doubt access to great public transit.
Excellent work, everyone. We need to reclaim the public space of our streets from the private property of cars. People around the world are inspired by your fightback. Solidarity!
Bikes make the world a better place for the health of people and the planet. Travelling on a tandem bike to many European countries I see how both the cars and bikes share the roads. New highways are not needed. An increase in public transit must be pushed for in all cities to outside communities as populations increase and people work further from where they live. I know who won't be getting my next vote in the next Ontario provincial election. ❤the bike!
I fully support you, especially in my favourite city. Ignoring the red lights and the poor person trying to use the crossing didn't send out a great message about safety though.
I'm just back from two trips to Paris, it's a very bike friendly city. places for pedestrians to walk, bikes to ride and cars to drive. Narrow streets and yes they have a little bit of congestion at times but traffic seems to flow without any problems. Ford is an ass.
Great initiative. I really hope those bike lanes will survive and the law repealed. Ford needs to go! Greetings from Alberta, where many of us are worried about the precedent.
Ford Nation once (and not long ago) supported the construction of cycling lanes adjacent to sidewalks so cyclists would be as far as practical from passing cars. Supported explicite in Toronto. It's sad to see Ontario fumble with good momentum.
The US's "Democratic" party leaders testified before congress that they have no obligation to choose nominees democratically; when that's the _more_ "democratic" side of a two-party duopoly, it's tough to refer to things _accurately_ without offending almost everyone!
@@prophetzarquon well, party nominees shouldn’t have to be chosen by democracy, the democracy is in the actual election. Realistically, a party should nominate the candidate with the best chance, to enhance its chances of forming government. It works best in a multiparty democracy tho imo
I wonder how this get together would have played out if there had been six inches of snow that day. FYI I'm a life long cyclist. But I sold my road bike long ago. No way I'm getting on the road with cars.
Saying that bicycles cause car traffic congestion is just about the dumbest thing anyone could say. How do these politicians even end up in these positions of power?
@@PhoenixHen Nice try. I live at South Kingsway and Bloor West, and I'm not blind. Traffic congestion has increased exponentially in this area since the bike lane infrastructure was installed.
Yes! I'm also from Oakland, CA and stand in solidairty with these fellow cyclists who just want better transit options and safer bike infrastructure in their city.
Same problems as in Berlin, Germany. The real bad thing last friday, 29th november 2024 was that we visited with the critical mass a ghostbike that was put there some hours before, the 3rd (!!!)😢😢😢 in one (1!) week. Good luck for you. The world doesn't need ghostbikes, not even one. So sad. I was at the demonstrations for bringing all 3 ghostbikes, one for a 17 years young boy. And our government stopped the building of already long time planned bikelanes.
@@OGillo2001 When a cyclist passes away from being hit by a car, members of the community paint that cyclist's bicycle white and usually park the bike at the location of collision. It kinda comes out of the bicycle messenger community from decades ago. If you watch the youtube video "Kirk Janes Memorial Ride" you'll see messengers take their friend & colleague's painted "ghost bike" out to where other fallen SF messenger's bikes go. Kirk was a friend of mine. RIP.
We just raw dog the main roads. Most of the time people are chill about it, but gotta get used to getting passed at high speed with few inches gap between 😅
So the logic of these politicians is if all those cyclists were to instead be driving in a car, 1 person to a car which is the norm, and it looks like there were maybe 50-100 cyclists, there would be less traffic congestion? Ya, that makes all the sense in the world .🙄
Happy to see the people fighting back. Ford’s quick attempt to get votes for the next election is slimy and backwards thinking. Continue on with the good fight!
It's dumb that Ford thinks removing bike lanes will eliminate cyclists. Cyclists have a right to the road under the Highway Traffic Act. Bike lanes actually help car traffic.
As we can see Brazil is Not the only country with stupid governmant in the world but i couldn’t imagine this in a country like Canadá that is century ahead of brazilian Development
Keep fighting the good fight against Ford and other numpties like him. He's just pandering to his base. Fight and be heard! Cyclists are here to stay and growing in numbers every year for various reasons. Health, the cost of living, the environment and because it's freakin fun to ride bikes. I purchased a new Cargo Ebike for commuting, best way to get around here. One great thing is I live in a small town of 12,000 people in Newfoundland, our roads are never congested with traffic and it's relatively safe to ride wherever here. But go fight!
Full support from France.
And Germany too
ich war dabei - cm - am freitag in berlin - @@Dergelbe1208
Australia also :)
And the UK
and Romania 🇷🇴
Nobody would drive anywhere if the roads just stopped and started at random like cycle infrastructure does. The fact so many people still cycle despite the actively hostile infrastructure should maybe be taken as a sign that joining it up will cause a dramatic increase in cycling with the attendant improvement in quality of life for everyone - including the carbrains who don't realise that every cyclist they see is one less car blocking their progress.
On top of the very valid safety considerations, it’s also about the question, what kind of city do we want? I dream of a city with way fewer cars, reliable and attractive transit options, along with bike friendly streets and paths. I say this as a senior who can no longer ride a bike for medical reasons. I wish you well. Please keep the vision and never give up the fight.
You are describing my city, Sir. Enschede in the Netherlands 🇳🇱
Automotive ownership resulting in more taxable exchange of currency, is higher priority than quality of life, by the measures of capitalistic governance.
Your dream of few cars is a LIE-beral sponsored WOKE NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry but cyclist seems dosent know a huge city like Toronto works & all the need millions people need, all the services we need, the apple dosent come from the trees to your table etc..first i see most of the cyclist dosent respect light or stop signs, + they think the road belong to them, when i was a kid, my mom told me to watch when i cross the street, there is a reason, always bigger than a human, my sister walking get hit from cyclist? she was in the way apparently, no matter what walk, ride or drive i am aware of bigger than me, bcuz is going to be me who's is going to suffer is not rocket science, second, vehicule safety are doing a lot of progress for pedestrian alert, cyclist alert bcuz human factor, sun factor, heart attack while driving, mechanical issue, i drive & i get cut often, i dont make a big story, i saw more vehicles than cyclist, some bike lane are totally empty? i understand some area bike are more usufull, its easier for a bike to ride anywhere than vehicules, why can you cyclist use quiet street, Doug got a point about emergency service, if you cyclist live on bloor & your house is on fire & becuz bike lane each side, fire fighter can not reach you in time, you might die.....if you dont like vehicules go live in a quiter city :) no one force you to live here, i see a lot of zombies everyday, I love Toronto & Doug Ford is a business men. he care for Ontario people, he was not the first to close the border when covid arrived.....stay alert, chill, dont chew for nothing life is too short ? enjoy!!!
@@aldosano841 AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIE-beral politicians dream of a world where PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF ANY SORT OF MOTOR VEHICLE IS BANNED and such a view will end up getting them THROWN OUT OF OFFICE EVENTUALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And these bicycle evangelists are a CRACKPOT LUNATIC FRINGE who dream of becoming tinpot dictators and tyrants telling the rest of us HOW TO LIVE AND WHERE TO LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great video of the Toronto bike community banding together to fight this. There were so many people there that we didn't even see you, but it's a good thing when a crowd of cyclists is that big!
I agree.
I think that cyclists need to lobby the local governments to sue the provincial government. The mayors need to humiliate the provincial government.
I cycled 2000km this year so far, I lived on Spadina ave since 2005, went through 6-7 bikes in 20 years. I support ford decision. Not all bike lanes make sense in Toronto. Bloor st w pass royal york, there is very little traffic. I cycled there in October twice, the only other cyclists I saw were Indian delivery drivers on their e bikes. And new approved bike lane in parkside doesn’t make sense either. Cyclist can use high park. University used to have 4 lanes, now it’s only 2. That’s ridiculous.
On the other hand, Bike lane on college st, St. George makes a lot more sense. They don’t cut into existing lanes. And Spadina traffic is as terrible as ever. I am actively searching for a new house in Vaughan, traffic downstairs is one of the reasons that I wanna move.
@@thejeffinvade Do you know that Ford's bill plans for the removal of ALL of Bloor Street's bike lanes? Even the extremely busy section in old Toronto? This is not just about the new section past Royal York. Also, the lanes there are new - more people will use them as time goes on, just like the lanes downtown. And delivery drivers deserve bike lanes too!
BTW, University Ave. still has 6 lanes total for cars - 4 for moving cars, 2 for parked cars. And traffic moves perfectly great (I travel on this street regularly). We never needed an 8 lane highway in downtown Toronto, though all 8 lanes were never drivable anyway, because of cars parked and pulled over.
@ 1, I drive on university every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Trust me, the traffic is worse than before.
2, university used to have 4 lanes: 3 lanes for cars, 1 for both parked cars and cyclists. I cycled there constantly since I studied in uoft for both my undergrad and graduate degrees. Now the car traffic only has two lanes. And you have to consider the turning lane before the intersection. Now cars that are turning right will block one extra lane of traffic, like at elm st intersection, reducing thru traffic to 1 lane, creating a bottleneck situation.
@@thejeffinvade, you cycled, and now that you're driving 4 days/week (probably solo in a polluting machine that occupies the space of more than 6 cyclists), you've gotten a "car brain" biased in favour of your own privileges.
The problem with cars, and i own one which i do not use in the city anymore, is that their numbers are generally increasing more rapidly than the population of North American cities.
The only way to reduce traffic is through "traffic evaporation", e.g.: measures that encourage people to either leave their cars home, or decide not to buy a 1st or 2nd car for their household, as opposed to "induced demand" (that irrational 20th century political reflex of adding more car lanes in the vain hopes that it'll solve the issue, though it NEVER does alleviate congestion in the middle or long term).
Traffic evaporation requires consolidating public transit services and adding more convenient options, on top of adding (a lot more) bike infrastructure, as direct as possible (rather than through multiple detours on local streets and hurdles when they cross major arteries), as is being done in Montréal with amazing results: massive cyclist traffic on a growing number of protected bike lanes!
Dutchie here. Protests on bikes are something I didn't know I needed in life. Go Toronto!
I am a Montrealer, I hope you guys/gals in Toronto prevail and expand your cyclists path, and don't forget to give your premier a bike, he can benefit from doing more bike.
Using driver convenience over bicyclists' safety as political distraction to sneak through a new highway is inexcusable. Keep up the good work, Toronto bicyclists! We are rooting for you!
It will be very inconvenient for drivers when they have to drive behind cyclists at their pace when traffic would have been otherwise good. Bring back bike lanes and encourage work from home and traffic should improve.
It's going to be inconvenient when people that might cycle don't as there's no bike lane, and you end up with more car traffic.
drivers are the lazist people on the planet most can't even walk to their mailbox
@@newmobile1455….I drive and I walk, but I don't ride a bicycle, mainly because I consider bicycling exercise and I prefer to be on my feet while exercising. I walk/ hike 2-3 hours a day with my Shepherd Dog, my loyal companion. Most days we will drive to the various trailheads around us, but not generally further than 7 km. My mailbox is a long hop, skip, and a jump, not an issue. Everyone in my circle drives, we are all a little different from each other. We have all decided to spend our daily energy as we see fit. None of us are lazy. I would say we are all pretty much pragmatic and all lead busy lives. The majority of my social circle live, as I do, in the countryside a fair distance from a city. Owning and operating a vehicle is a necessity to us. Ironically, I spend less time in my truck than I did when I lived in the city, a place that I was constantly wanting to distance myself from, so here I am.
Good luck to Toronto cyclists from Colorado!
And I repeat the same as i told here in Brazil if the problem is with the traffic take the cars out from the street and use bike or make a decent public transport that works properly Good luck friends All the support from Brazil
Yes!
Mixed mode > separations
*_Lanes to trains!_*
Sorry but cyclist seems dosent know a huge city like Toronto works & all the need millions people need, all the services we need, the apple dosent come from the trees to your table etc..first i see most of the cyclist dosent respect light or stop signs, + they think the road belong to them, when i was a kid, my mom told me to watch when i cross the street, there is a reason, always bigger than a human, my sister walking get hit from cyclist? she was in the way apparently, no matter what walk, ride or drive i am aware of bigger than me, bcuz is going to be me who's is going to suffer is not rocket science, second, vehicule safety are doing a lot of progress for pedestrian alert, cyclist alert bcuz human factor, sun factor, heart attack while driving, mechanical issue, i drive & i get cut often, i dont make a big story, i saw more vehicles than cyclist, some bike lane are totally empty? i understand some area bike are more usufull, its easier for a bike to ride anywhere than vehicules, why can you cyclist use quiet street, Doug got a point about emergency service, if you cyclist live on bloor & your house is on fire & becuz bike lane each side, fire fighter can not reach you in time, you might die.....if you dont like vehicules go live in a quiter city :) no one force you to live here, i see a lot of zombies everyday, I love Toronto & Doug Ford is a business men. he care for Ontario people, he was not the first to close the border when covid arrived.....stay alert, chill, dont chew for nothing life is too short ? enjoy!!!
Different City, Different Country … same problems. best of Luck from Berlin ✊🏼
Wen man hier nicht alles trifft! ❤
Solidarity from Los Angeles.
Bike lines do not cause congestion. Cars do.
True enough. But, we have to get to work. And I can't carry my table saw and all my other tools on my bike.
@@robgrey6183 yes, but i'm not really criticising people like you who have a genuine need. I'm criticising those selfish morons who are fit, healthy, don't need to carry anything much, can walk their journey in 15 minutes, but STILL drive.
@@robgrey6183 Also bs, there are way more ways that lead to rome without coming up with excuses.
This is the same as to say, but I got two children in diapers so I have to take the car.
Why, in the netherlands all mothers do that? have two children on the back and another one on the steer.
Amuricans are actually just little brats that don't get what they want, fast enough.
That has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard
@@robgrey6183if more commuters are riding bikes, there is less congestion for those who actually need vehicles to move stuff.
FFS. Do you think roads will all be dug up? Do you have to have 100% of every road? 99.9% isn't enough?
I'm rooting for Toronto bike lanes from Belgium!
London calling to a far away land... full support to you and hope the city comes to its senses. Love from the UK.
Solidarity from Calgary!
Solidarity from Warszawa, Poland.
Good luck from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
What a great video! I wish I could have been out there with you all!
Something else going on also, because very difficult to find this video on TH-cam. And impressed at the turnout even though the temp has plummeted. Would be ten times more riders if it was warmer.
@@tryink688 I wouldn't worry too much... I am a small account and don't get much play on the algorithm! Thanks for finding it and absolutely, it would be bigger in warmer weather. The timing of this law is not accidental.
TH-cam recommended it to me, even though I wasn't searching for this type of content.
Hey great u are riding, but the bill as reads from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website talks more about building new highways and car centric infrastructure and forcing or expediting any and all processes needed to force the new construction of highways, similar to how laws of the past have been written, when seemingly a main goal was to social isolate classes (and by extension further marginalizing communities of what are often minorities, or disabled people).
It even goes so far as to make ecological studies unnecessary so as to reduce as many regulations as possible, and making it far easier to just take people's land to construct this.
Yes, I am aware of all this. However we have the fight the battles that affect us personally too. While I wish there were large rallies against the 413-related parts of the bill, and would be there in a minute, the bike lane removals matter in a direct manner to me and those around me. And so we are pushing back on that aspect.
Solidarity from Edmonton. Keep up the fight!💪
More safe streets not less!!!!!!!..... great job, thanks and best wishes from a land Down Under...
Thanks for documenting this. We are actually making history. I don’t know of any city in the world that is removing their biggest and most popular bike lanes.
I see this as an opportunity to fix a few last things before going all out with more bike lanes.
Drivers were left out of discussions on bike lanes by 2 key groups. We can fix that.
When bike lanes were first discussed, cyclists talked about them with other cyclists. Then we engaged key city officials in order to get them built. But cyclists didn’t spend the same quality time discussing bike lanes with drivers. For the part of drivers, a lot of them just went about their lives thinking bike lanes are for bikes so it has nothing to do with them. Until they got installed through their neighbourhood. Then they noticed. But instead of painstakingly bringing them up to speed on traffic planning, cyclists kind of said, we had to fight hard to get the first ones in so now it’s your turn to suck it up and let us have our way. We didn’t really engage drivers explaining the benefits to drivers or to invite them to ride bikes. And that invited a lot of the current backlash. A lot of drivers never saw the value of bike lanes and saw them as getting in the way of drivers, especially on the busiest streets.
The other people who left drivers in the dark was city officials regarding car congestion. The city’s methods for reducing congestion include tweaking traffic light timing, sending out traffic cops to shoo drivers through busy intersections, and fly drones over congestion / use computer programs to model congestion and anticipate causes and cures. Consider each of these approaches, how much they will affect city wide congestion. They are band aid solutions to a systemic problem that begs for general system wide approaches. So let’s look at the most common general approach to reducing car congestion.
All methods fall into one of two categories. Increase the streets / highways / traffic system’s capacity to handle more cars or reduce how much we collectively drive.
Raising the LEVEL OF SERVICE of a street increases capacity to move more cars. That includes removing a bike lane to replace it with a car lane, like what the Conservative government wants to do. So on Bloor, we double Bloor Street’s capacity to move cars, going from one car lane each way to two. Bingo! All our problems are solved! The problem with this is we’ve been increasing the capacity of streets and highways for over 100 years. And there is only so much more we can do with this method before we can’t do any more. So what was a system wide general solution to congestion has become a band aid solution. Doubling the capacity of Bloor, University and Yonge does not significantly increase the city’s overall capacity to move cars. So a short time after the bike lanes are removed congestion will ease. But then it will be as bad as or worse than before. Traffic was bad before the bike lanes were installed. And the Ontario government has no intention to put the bike lanes back if it turns out they were wrong, they have no interest in measuring congestion now or after the mike lanes get removed. They are just going on gut instinct, what seems logical to them, what they see and hearing complaints from other drivers.
Anyway. Something that does have a big effect is reducing driving. Inviting people out of their cars and riding a bike is one of the reasons for bike lanes. Cyclists say one more bike means one less car. That directly affects car congestion. But it’s less congestion on highways, not just local streets. The city hasn’t talked about this with drivers.
Drivers are the ONLY stakeholders in congestion because they get stuck in it. And it’s their cars and trucks which make up congestion. So they have the right to be in on the discussions about it. The result is drivers always blame the government. Leaving them out is like how a helicopter mom always gets blamed for their child’s problems. It was set up like this. Drivers will want to know:
1 How bad is it? How do we measure it?
2 How much does it affect us?
3 What causes it?
4 Cures?
5 As a driver, how can I avoid it?
The biggest reason for driving is you can come and go as you please, you don’t need to wait for a bus that may never come. Not informing drivers how to avoid congestion strips them of their autonomy. Not having a way to measure it means everything becomes gridlock even if it’s 3 cars waiting at a red light.
These two groups, cyclists and city traffic planners left drivers in the dark for no good reason. Now that they are mad, it might be even harder for them to listen, especially when they think they are getting what they want. The bike lanes are scheduled to go. But what will help is for cyclists to peacefully stand up for themselves like at bike rallies and for cyclists to meet drivers one on one, get to know each other, and both listen to each other. Often people who oppose bike lanes, let them talk long enough and they will talk about reasons to keep them. I spoke with a man who was a condo developer. I kept saying I want to hear more. Then he said I have three adult sons. All of them bike. And I’m concerned for their safety. I said we agree on this. Bike lanes make this street (happened to be Sheppard) much safer for cyclists. If I just argued and walked away in a huff he never would have told me about his sons. But I’m glad he did. That’s as personal as it gets, concern for your own family’s safety. We need to talk a lot with drivers. Then we’ll win.
Drivers mostly circle back to a desire to feel safe, & to most of the US exhibiting a general unavailability of truly practical alternatives.
Once passenger-rail was removed & paved at great cost, it became _even more costly & difficult_ to restore rail services.
Even when attempted, the frequency & interconnectivity need to be very high, such that it's easy to spend a lot of money creating a spectacle of a failure.
Without safe high-speed transit for long distances, that general automotive dependency continues to interfere with safe & enjoyable bicycling, walking, & other modes of transit.
Unfortunately, pointing out that almost every highway & every stroad with four lanes in a single direction, ought better to have a high-frequency rail service & traffic _slowing_ measures (such as trees (including female)) along it, tends to be a _very_ hard sell, even when taking the "discussion" one person at a time.
Full support from Saskatchewan!
keep it going!
Like the US, Canada needs a new progressive party that isn't beholden to big business, big auto, and big oil. People really have no idea how much money is involved in the automobile and supporting industries. Oil drilling / refining into gasoline /delivery / gas stations, metals mining / smelting / processing / logistics, parts production / logistics, auto assembly / logistics / dealerships / service / recycling, factory and machinery construction, insurance / registration, cement production, construction to build and maintain all of the road infrastructure, traffic signal and signage, police road enforcement, fire services trained to deal in car accidents and fires, healthcare to deal with the huge numbers of auto related casualties. etc...
Millions upon millions upon millions of jobs. People working for auto related industries just so they can afford their cars and fuel to transport themselves from their homes which are far away from their jobs and city centers... It may as well be digging ditches. Sure, people can dig ditches their entire lives with nothing really to show for it so long as there's no major side effect, however, when it comes to automobiles, there are major side effects. High volumes of traffic casualties and much much worse... climate change which could quickly destroy the lives of billions of human beings around the world and make life both harder and more expensive for everyone.
It's funny that EVs are getting such huge tax credits, all in a bid to maintain the status quo of off the charts car ownership and resource use. These cars are marketed as saving the environment... only costing us $30k-$50k+ (after taxpayer funded credits)for the priviledge , plus high annual registration and insurance costs. Meanwhile, electricity prices continue to increase, so whether they actually save money over gas in the long run is an unknown. Meanwhile, transportation like bicycles, that truly lower transportation based fatality rates (excluding when cars run over cyclists) and cause significantly less pollution and resource use, they get no credits or benefits at all. What bicyclists get instead is a struggle to get even simple protections on road ways to protect their very lives.
I guess if the government wants to prop up big oil, big auto, big car insurance, etc... the best way is to put down the bicyclist movement by allowing cars to literally run over the bikers. To make biking so dangerous as to be unthinkable.
Ford isn't worried about bike lanes slowing down car traffic... he's worried about more people replacing cars or even car miles with bikes. By replacing miles, you extend the life of the car and reduce the sale of new cars, and you reduce the sale of oil. As oil demand drops, so do gas prices. Even a 1-2% drop in oil demand can lead to significant reductions in gas prices. Now consider what a 20%...40%...80%...etc... reduction in gas use could do.
The irony is all the complaints about skyrocketing housing prices due to lack of housing availability. Part of that is due to a lack of space in cities, on account of so much space being taken up by all the car infrastructure. Roads and parking lots. Certainly, you can't just downsize a road and replace it with an apartment or a house in all cases, but you can certainly do it in many cases. Replacing a 2x1x2 roadway with a bike lane that takes up the lane of 2 car lanes would leave 3 car lanes to add shops to. Shops that previously took up space at the bottom of apartment buildings; space that can now be repurposed into apartments, in regions that are highly sought after due to their walkability and bike-ability, and no doubt access to great public transit.
Excellent work, everyone. We need to reclaim the public space of our streets from the private property of cars. People around the world are inspired by your fightback. Solidarity!
💯 *^ This.*
Drivers on streets full of intersections & entrances\exits, can simply _slow down_ & enjoy the
Bikes make the world a better place for the health of people and the planet. Travelling on a tandem bike to many European countries I see how both the cars and bikes share the roads. New highways are not needed. An increase in public transit must be pushed for in all cities to outside communities as populations increase and people work further from where they live. I know who won't be getting my next vote in the next Ontario provincial election.
❤the bike!
On your side! ✊🏼
We are traffic, not a part of it.
Greetings from Hamburg
I fully support you, especially in my favourite city. Ignoring the red lights and the poor person trying to use the crossing didn't send out a great message about safety though.
Solidarity from Manchester, U.K.
What century does Ford live in ? Bike lanes are a solution,not a problem !
I'm just back from two trips to Paris, it's a very bike friendly city. places for pedestrians to walk, bikes to ride and cars to drive. Narrow streets and yes they have a little bit of congestion at times but traffic seems to flow without any problems. Ford is an ass.
Full support from USA, our neighbor to the north which is actually 12 miles away from Ontario. #SafeStreets
Support from Australia
well done guys, keep the faith
Full support from Brazil. Stay strong!!
Support from the Cotswolds, UK..!!
Solidarity from Montreal. Keep fighting this 🚲💪
Solidarity from Budapest, Hungary.
Great initiative. I really hope those bike lanes will survive and the law repealed. Ford needs to go! Greetings from Alberta, where many of us are worried about the precedent.
I wish ya guya good luck and success! Hugs from Europe.
Big support for your cause from Sweden!!!
I am with you heart and soul, from Montreal. You have to keep this up in order to make the provincial government see the error of its' ways.
Hello from the UK,we are a car centric dystopian society in this part of the World.North America is exactly the same?
Much much worse
Full support from Edmonton!
Absolutely bunkers awsome,solidarity from 🇩🇰🚴❤️
I wish you success!
"Progressive" and "conservative" don't belong in the same sentence. They are literally opposites.
Ford Nation once (and not long ago) supported the construction of cycling lanes adjacent to sidewalks so cyclists would be as far as practical from passing cars. Supported explicite in Toronto. It's sad to see Ontario fumble with good momentum.
Full support from Greater Manchester UK 👍🚴♂️🤩
"Progressive Conservative" is an oxymoron.
I agree but it's what they call the party so I aim for accuracy!
@MadMarie2005, they shall rather be renamed Regressive Conservatives! 🙃
The US's "Democratic" party leaders testified before congress that they have no obligation to choose nominees democratically; when that's the _more_ "democratic" side of a two-party duopoly, it's tough to refer to things _accurately_ without offending almost everyone!
@@prophetzarquon well, party nominees shouldn’t have to be chosen by democracy, the democracy is in the actual election. Realistically, a party should nominate the candidate with the best chance, to enhance its chances of forming government. It works best in a multiparty democracy tho imo
@@francoisdandurand Or aggressive Conservatives
solidarity from nyc!
Doug Ford is doing a wonderful job! He's brought the cycling community together.
Wheeled vehicles that use public roads should be all taxed at the same rate- per kilogram.
The subsidizes commercial vehicles: because road damage is proportional to the axle load raised to the 4th power.
Solidarity from San Francisco!
Bon courage aux cyclistes de Troronto. Ici à Bordeaux il y a beaucoup de voies cyclables, et d'automobilisites respectueux.
Awesome support to fight this massive overstep by Ford's gov't.
Full solidarity from Germany.
Dommage qu'il n'y ait pas de sous-titre en français... 🤷♀
Instead of removing bike lanes, remover Doug Ford!!
gonna need a fork lift
100% support from the UK.
It's been a couple of decades since i participated in a critical mass but i was there when it mattered
Good lock and fingers crossed from Mannheim / Germany
Full support from New Mexico.
Well done critical mass!
Move in all to Montreal and you'll get a full range bike system for daily uses, protected against politicians feeded by suburban hate .
I wonder how this get together would have played out if there had been six inches of snow that day.
FYI I'm a life long cyclist. But I sold my road bike long ago. No way I'm getting on the road with cars.
I hope the cyclists are successfully stopping this backwards law. As a cyclist in South-Western Ontario, we need all the bike lanes we can get.
This affects all of Canadian politics, I think.
Solidarity from New York City Critical Mass!
We with you here in Melbourne Australia
Saying that bicycles cause car traffic congestion is just about the dumbest thing anyone could say. How do these politicians even end up in these positions of power?
Plenty of other politicians managed to get into power by lying and making impossible promises.
Bicycles themselves don't cause congestion, but removing a full traffic lane to put in a bike path definitely does.
@@santiagobenites It doesn't
@@PhoenixHen Nice try. I live at South Kingsway and Bloor West, and I'm not blind. Traffic congestion has increased exponentially in this area since the bike lane infrastructure was installed.
@@santiagobenites If more people biked instead of driving, then maybe traffic would get better, don't you think?
Solidarity from Oakland, California! ✊🏻
Yes! I'm also from Oakland, CA and stand in solidairty with these fellow cyclists who just want better transit options and safer bike infrastructure in their city.
my wife and I were just talking about Critical mass a couple days ago,ive ridden a ton of night rides and as an avid cyclist in Philly....subbed!
Woohoo!
Same problems as in Berlin, Germany. The real bad thing last friday, 29th november 2024 was that we visited with the critical mass a ghostbike that was put there some hours before, the 3rd (!!!)😢😢😢 in one (1!) week. Good luck for you. The world doesn't need ghostbikes, not even one. So sad. I was at the demonstrations for bringing all 3 ghostbikes, one for a 17 years young boy. And our government stopped the building of already long time planned bikelanes.
What is a ghostbike please?
@@OGillo2001 When a cyclist passes away from being hit by a car, members of the community paint that cyclist's bicycle white and usually park the bike at the location of collision. It kinda comes out of the bicycle messenger community from decades ago. If you watch the youtube video "Kirk Janes Memorial Ride" you'll see messengers take their friend & colleague's painted "ghost bike" out to where other fallen SF messenger's bikes go. Kirk was a friend of mine. RIP.
Meanwhile we dont even have cycling lanes in india😅
Full support guys!🔥
We just raw dog the main roads. Most of the time people are chill about it, but gotta get used to getting passed at high speed with few inches gap between 😅
Just proved that it's all about money.The car companies couldn't care less about others
Full support from Berlin
Wishing you luck from New Jersey (USA)
Cyclists of the world, unite! ✊❤🎀
So the logic of these politicians is if all those cyclists were to instead be driving in a car, 1 person to a car which is the norm, and it looks like there were maybe 50-100 cyclists, there would be less traffic congestion? Ya, that makes all the sense in the world .🙄
Unbelievable. What a jerk.
Solidarity from Cleveland. Vote em out!
Support from those of us unlucky enough to live in Trumpistan.
Drivers: "You CANNOT CLOG THE ROADS, BLOCK TRAFFIC AND CREATE GRIDLOCK! Who do you think you are?"
*"That's OUR JOB!"*
Support and solidarity from Connecticut!
Happy to see the people fighting back. Ford’s quick attempt to get votes for the next election is slimy and backwards thinking. Continue on with the good fight!
Way to go ❤
well done Torontonians!!!
Solidarity
I tell drivers they have to drive behind me now because Doug Ford doesn't want me in the bike lane. th-cam.com/video/sPg0sSa4n7c/w-d-xo.html
Keep it up guys! From USA
Ford stands for Found On Road Dead
Support from the UK 👍
How did it turn out, did the bike lanes stay?
Too soon to say. The law has been passed and it’s likely some of the lanes will be removed.
Will traffic improve as a result? No it won’t.
It's dumb that Ford thinks removing bike lanes will eliminate cyclists. Cyclists have a right to the road under the Highway Traffic Act. Bike lanes actually help car traffic.
Cyclists might as well start using the car lanes. If they did this en masse, then they might not need lanes as much.
If there was proper infrastructure they wouldn't need to risk their lives by riding alongside a few ton machines
Bike lanes DO NOT actually help improve car traffic. That is an absolutely fallacy, as is the statement that Ford wants to 'eliminate' cyclists.
As we can see Brazil is Not the only country with stupid governmant in the world but i couldn’t imagine this in a country like Canadá that is century ahead of brazilian Development
Keep fighting the good fight against Ford and other numpties like him. He's just pandering to his base. Fight and be heard! Cyclists are here to stay and growing in numbers every year for various reasons. Health, the cost of living, the environment and because it's freakin fun to ride bikes. I purchased a new Cargo Ebike for commuting, best way to get around here. One great thing is I live in a small town of 12,000 people in Newfoundland, our roads are never congested with traffic and it's relatively safe to ride wherever here. But go fight!
Keep fighting!!
Good luck from the Netherlands! I hope you can revert this law soon.