ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Premier Ford’s Bike Lanes Bill Ignores Urgent Safety Needs of Vulnerable Pedestrians with Disabilities, Seniors and Others
October 28, 2024, Toronto: Introduced into the Legislature last week, the Ford Government’s Bill 212, regulating the construction of bike lanes in Ontario, ignores the urgent safety needs of vulnerable pedestrians with disabilities, seniors and others. It does not require that bike lanes be built at street level instead of sidewalk level so that cyclists don’t endanger vulnerable pedestrians. Key excerpts from Bill 212 are set out below.
The AODA Alliance called for this law to include a ban on building bike paths on sidewalks rather than at street level. A harmful new trend has been to build new bike paths on sidewalks. This endangers blind pedestrians who won’t know they are walking in the middle of a bike path when they think they are on a sidewalk reserved for pedestrians.
The AODA Alliance is calling on the Legislature to amend Bill 212 to require that bike paths only be built at street level. It calls for public hearings on this bill at the Legislature, and wants to give testimony on this at legislative hearings.
Last fall, the AODA Alliance posted an 8-minute online video showing how a bike path on Toronto’s Eglinton Avenue, built at sidewalk rather than road level, seriously endangers people with disabilities.
“Bill 212, which regulates bike lanes and many other topics, says absolutely nothing about people with disabilities. It’s a cruel irony that the bill’s only reference to disability is to ‘disabled vehicles’” said blind lawyer, law professor and disability rights advocate David Lepofsky, Chair of the nonpartisan AODA Alliance. “Last year the government-appointed Independent Review declared that Ontario has an accessibility crisis. We need Bill 212 to ensure that the design of new bike paths doesn’t make that crisis worse.”
For any level of government to build a new bike path right on the sidewalk and not at road level obviously endangers blind pedestrians who have no way of knowing they’re straying into a bike path. It also endangers pedestrians and cyclists without disabilities.
The Ontario Government itself and not just municipalities can create this danger. Toronto city staff advised the AODA Alliance that the dangerous bike path depicted in our widely viewed video was built by Metrolinx, an agency of the Ontario Government. It is illegal to create new accessibility barriers like this, which is all the worse when it is done using public money.
The AODA Alliance heartily supports the need to build more bike paths. It does not take a position on the Ford Government’s other planned regulations regarding bike paths. It simply contends that the provincial government must ensure that any bike path be designed to be safe for cyclists and all pedestrians, including vulnerable pedestrians with disabilities.
Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com
For more background, visit
- The AODA Alliance’s widely-viewed November 2024 online video about the dangers of building bike paths on a sidewalk.
- AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s May 2, 2024 deputation to the City of Toronto Infrastructure and Environment Committee, balling for a ban on building bike paths on sidewalks. That Committee took no action in response to this request.
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.