Metroland Disability Rights Column Urges Ford Government’s Bike Lane Legislation to Ban Bike Lanes on Sidewalks

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities

Website: www.aodaalliance.org

Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com

Twitter: @aodaalliance

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance

 

Metroland Disability Rights Column Urges Ford Government’s Bike Lane Legislation to Ban Bike Lanes on Sidewalks

 

October 26, 2024

 

SUMMARY

 

In his monthly column in the Toronto Star’s 25 Metroland publications, AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky this month urges the Ford Government to ban bike lanes from being built on top of sidewalks. It endangers pedestrians with disabilities and others when a bike lane is located on top of a sidewalk, rather than at street level. Read that October 23, 2024 article below.

 

The Ford Government’s new bill on bike lanes, Bill 212, does not do this. It’s included in a long complicated bill that covers all sorts of other topics. The relevant part of that bill is only a couple of pages long. You can read it below.

 

This is yet another illustration of the Ford Government failing to fulfil its obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to prevent the creation of new disability barriers in Ontario.

 

How You Can Help

  • Email your member of the Ontario Legislature. Tell them to press the Ford Government to amend Bill 212 to prohibit bike lanes from being built at sidewalk level instead of at street level. Tell them to watch the AODA Alliance’s 8-minute video that shows why it endangers pedestrians with disabilities to build a bike path at sidewalk level.

 

 

 

  • Send a letter to the editor to one of the Metroland publications. Give your feedback on Metroland’s a monthly disability rights column, something no other Ontario publication now appears to have. Use Google to find out the email to use. Search on “Metroland and letter to the editor” to find it.

 

For more background

 

Visit

The AODA Alliance website’s Built Environment page.

 

MORE DETAILS

 

Durham Region October 23, 2024

 

Originally posted at https://www.durhamregion.com/opinion/contributors/bike-paths-should-be-at-street-level-not-sidewalk-disability-advocate-urges/article_8f4179a1-ae3e-5112-b36c-9ca1e1b279db.html

 

Bike paths should be at street level, not sidewalk, disability advocate urges

 

Retired lawyer David Lepofsky writes that proposed provincial legislation must address important issue of safety and accessibility for vulnerable pedestrians with disabilities in communities across Ontario regarding bike paths.

 

 

By David Lepofsky

 

David Lepofsky is a retired lawyer who chairs the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.

 

The Ford Government said it’s bringing forward new provincial legislation that will regulate when and where bike paths can be built in communities across Ontario. This may pit some avid cyclists against some car drivers. I’m not wading into that fray. I heartily support the goal of building new bike paths.

 

No matter where you stand, however, there’s an important issue of safety and accessibility for vulnerable pedestrians with disabilities in communities across Ontario regarding bike paths. This new legislation must address it. It’s one issue on which cyclists, car drivers and pedestrians can all agree.

 

Bike paths should never be built on sidewalks, at sidewalk level. They should only be built at street level. They can have a barrier dividing the bike path from car traffic to protect cyclists.

 

There’s a harmful new trend happening with building new bike paths on the sidewalk, not at street level. I’ve heard that Toronto is not alone in doing this.

 

It endangers blind pedestrians like me when a bike path is built at sidewalk level. When we walk on a sidewalk, we don’t know we are actually straying into a dangerous bike path. Sidewalks are supposed to be for pedestrians, not for any wheeled vehicles.

 

Bike paths on the sidewalk also endanger pedestrians with no disabilities. If they glance down at their phone, they can stray into the bike path on the sidewalk. If they have small kids with them, their children could do the same.

 

Cyclists are also endangered. They don’t want to collide with pedestrians and go flying.

 

A year ago, I released an eight-minute online video that shows why it is so dangerous for people with disabilities and others when a bike path is built on the sidewalk. It caused lots of supportive media coverage. Strangers have stopped me on the street to tell me they agree with our position on this.

 

Months after that video was released, I had to walk on the stretch of that street where that dangerous bike path is located. The city claimed the path has tactile markings that my white cane should detect as I’m walking. Those markings are hard to detect. Even when I know a bike path is somewhere on that sidewalk. Blind pedestrians don’t necessarily know which side of the line is safe.

 

Strangers warned me three times over a five-minute period that I had strayed into the bike lane. I was trying my best to avoid it. This is terrifying, and I’m not easily terrified. I’ve been blind for decades and am very experienced with long walks by myself using my white cane. How will this be for a senior who is just losing their eyesight, and trying to get used to walking in public using their white cane?

 

I offer the Ontario government a simple and totally effective solution. If it is going to proceed with new legislation setting provincial requirements for bike lanes, as it has announced, this law must require that bike lanes be built at street level, not at sidewalk level.

 

Ontario’s Disabilities Act requires the province to enact and enforce mandatory accessibility standards that will lead it to become accessible to 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities. A provincial ban on bike paths built at sidewalk-level would really help.

 

Over 15 months ago, the Ontario government-appointed independent review declared that Ontario has an accessibility crisis. We need provincial legislation to ensure that the design of new bike paths doesn’t make that crisis worse.

 

Building bike paths at sidewalk rather than street level is illegal. It violates the right to equality for people with disabilities in the Charter of Rights and the Ontario Human Rights Code.

 

It is illegal for a municipality anywhere in Ontario to create new accessibility barriers like this, which is all the worse when it is done using public money.

 

 

Excerpt from Ontario Bill 212 Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 –

 

Originally posted at https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-43/session-1/bill-212

Introduced in the Ontario Legislature on October 21, 2024

 

PART XII

MUNICIPAL BY-LAWS AND BICYCLE LANES

 

4 Part XII of the Act is amended by adding the following section:

 

Ministry approval for bicycle lanes required

 

195.2 (1) In the circumstances described in subsection (2), a municipality shall not construct, install or mark a bicycle lane on a highway or part of a highway under its jurisdiction and control unless the design for the bicycle lane has been approved by the Ministry and, in considering whether to give such approval, the Ministry may require information from the municipality including traffic information relating to the design for the bicycle lane and the highway.

 

Application

 

(2) Subsection (1) applies where,

 

(a) the design for the bicycle lane would reduce the number of marked lanes available for travel by motor vehicle traffic along any portion of or on either side of the highway where the bicycle lane is to be located; and

 

(b) the municipality is prescribed by regulation for the purposes of subsection (1).

 

Same, transition

 

(3) Subsection (1) does not apply if, on the day section 4 of Schedule 4 to the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 comes into force, a contract has already been awarded or entered into for the procurement of construction, installation or marking services for the bicycle lane or, if the construction, installation or marking of the bicycle lane is to be done by the municipality and not by any party under contract, such work has already commenced.

 

Consideration of traffic flow

 

(4) When considering whether to approve the design for the construction of a bicycle lane, the Ministry may consider whether it would unduly diminish the orderly movement of motor vehicle traffic.

 

Ministry may review existing bicycle lanes

 

(5) In the circumstances described in subsection (6), the Ministry may require a municipality to provide traffic information relating to an existing bicycle lane on a highway under its jurisdiction and control, and the municipality shall comply with the request.

 

Application

 

(6) Subsection (5) applies where,

 

(a) the addition of the bicycle lane reduced the number of marked lanes for travel by motor vehicle traffic along any portion of or on either side of the highway where the bicycle lane is located; and

 

(b) the municipality is prescribed by regulation for the purpose of subsection (5).

 

Regulations

 

(7) The Minister may make regulations,

 

(a) prescribing municipalities for the purposes of subsections (1) and (5);

 

(b) governing the information that may be required by the Ministry under subsections (1) and (5);

 

(c) exempting any highway or class of highway from this section or any provision of it, or providing that this section or any provision of it does not apply to any highway or class of highway;

 

(d) providing for anything necessary or advisable for carrying out the intent and purposes of this section.

 

Definition

 

(8) In this section,

 

“bicycle lane” includes any portion of a highway, the use of which is wholly or partially restricted or dedicated to bicycles.

 

Repeal

 

5 Section 3 of Schedule 2 to the Get It Done Act, 2024 is repealed.

 

Commencement

 

6 (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, this Schedule comes into force on the day the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 receives Royal Assent.

 

(2) Sections 1 to 4 come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.