Mayor Olivia Chow says she is hopeful that the province and the city can work together to find common ground on tweaks and redesigns for some portions of key Toronto bike lanes instead of unilaterally removing them.
Now, armed with a new staff report that shows removing bike lanes on Bloor Street, University Avenue and Yonge Street would cost at least $48 million, she is hoping to muster support from councillors at city hall Thursday before meeting with Premier Doug Ford to discuss the issue.
Speaking on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, Chow said that ripping bike lanes out could cause delays for traffic on main streets for “at least” nine months.
“In southbound University for example, we just put it in and then if we rip it out, it takes months and months,” she said.
“It will take, in some cases, two construction seasons … so it’s a lot of time.”
The report, which was released on Wednesday, comes after the Ontario government introduced legislation last month that would allow the removal of bike lanes and also require provincial approval for new ones.
City staff say removal of these three lanes would also mean Toronto loses the $27 million it has already invested in installing the infrastructure, on top of “as yet unknown additional costs to identify, design, and construct alternative cycling routes,” as well as unknown costs to rebuild these roads solely for cars.
WATCH | City manager, transportation minister talk bike lane removal:
Toronto city manager Paul Johnson told Metro Morning’s David Common if the province legislates changes to bike lanes in the city, he wants reimbursement to include planning time and staff wages. When asked about that, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the province will “reimburse the removal.”
Despite those possible costs, Chow struck a collaborative tone while talking about the issue Thursday.
“Forty-eight million dollars. That’s enough money to feed every kid in school — and that’s my priority. I know that’s also the premier’s priority,” she said.
“Spend the money feeding kids and we’ll work out the details.”
Meanwhile Ivana Yelich, deputy chief of staff for the premier, said in a social media post Thursday morning that there is “no real-life example of the costs being even remotely close to what the City of Toronto is suggesting.”
Chow also said she was open to making changes to a stretch of bike lane on Bloor heading into Etobicoke, which has drawn Ford’s ire as it is about a 10-minute drive from his home in Toronto’s west end.
“There are some new ones put in, there are problems in them. We’ll fix it together,” she said.
“There are some that we just put in that are not very busy.”