Toronto Fire Services officials were concerned that bike lanes, including lanes on Bloor Street West in Etobicoke, would slow emergency response times, and conducted internal research that supported those concerns, according to documents released to the Toronto Star.
The decision to install temporary bike lanes during COVID — most of which became permanent — seemed to come as a surprise at the time to then-fire chief Matthew Pegg, according to an email he sent to City of Toronto transportation chief Barbara Gray on May 25, 2020, after learning about the lanes on CP24 that morning.