On Thursday, Sept. 11, Toronto cyclists will rally along Eglinton Avenue to demand the City stick to its own plan and install bike lanes during road resurfacing. What should be a routine part of the EglintonTOday Complete Street project has instead become another test of Toronto’s political will.
The ride, organized by Cycle Toronto, kicks off at 6 p.m. at Eglinton East and Holly Street, heading west 1.5 km to Chaplin Crescent. The group is calling on Mayor Olivia Chow and City Council to resist delay and follow through.
“Bike lanes are too often scapegoated for traffic congestion as part of a bad-faith culture war,” said Cycle Toronto executive director Michael Longfield. “Delaying Eglinton is a self-inflicted mistake that will make congestion worse by forcing residents and businesses to endure two rounds of costly, unnecessary construction instead of one.”
For advocates, resurfacing now without adding bike lanes only to dig the road up again later isn’t just wasteful—it’s unsafe. And with the Crosstown LRT project delayed again, cycling groups argue that the current construction window is still the best moment to act.
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Toronto has been here before. Just months ago, Cycle Toronto won a legal fight to protect bike lanes on Yonge, Bloor, and University Avenue from Bill 212, the provincial law that gives Queen’s Park new powers to interfere with local street design. But while those lanes survived, Eglinton is far from guaranteed.
“Biking along Eglinton is currently difficult and dangerous,” said Marlee 4 Kids organizers Graham Pressey and Yael Boyd. “The bike lanes planned as part of EglintonTOday would connect communities and help children and other people be independent, safe, and active. Children’s safety isn’t something that can wait until next summer.”
Polling suggests residents are onside. An Ekos survey shows 74% of Torontonians blame congestion on construction mismanagement—not bike lanes—and seven in ten want more protected cycling routes.
According to a spokesperson for the city of Toronto, the plan is to still install bike lanes on Eglinton, just not right now.
“The planned eglintonTOday Complete Street project, which includes new bikeways and changes to car and bus lanes and parking, will be installed when the LRT opens, as buses continue to run along Eglinton Avenue in the meantime,” read an emailed statement from the city of Toronto.
The move to pause bike lane construction on Eglinton, even though it has been approved by city council, is the result of the Ontario provincial government wading into municipal decision making when it comes to roads and safety, which first came to light when Doug Ford and company sought to remove three prominent Toronto bike lanes.
The move resulted in a court case, which the Province lost, resulting in a reprieve for the Yonge, University and Bloor lanes. But, the province has appealed the decision.
