Doug Ford is right that we’re all fed up with traffic. But his solution to it is just plain offensive

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has rarely met a wedge issue he didn’t seem to love or encountered a jurisdictional line he wasn’t happy to breach.
In the latest skirmish of the long-running culture war between cars and bicycles, the premier has clearly found both.
In Ford’s ideal society, four wheels always trump two pedals — the better to appeal to suburban and hinterland voters on whom his Progressive Conservative government’s political success has been built.
His latest initiative on behalf of motorists is set to be launched once the Ontario legislature resumes Oct. 21, with introduction of legislation that would restrict new bike lanes from being built, and override municipal authority in order to do so.
The Ford government says the bill — which would block construction of new bike lanes if it would result in the loss of lanes to cars and trucks — will help reduce the gridlock that has motorists across Greater Toronto grinding their molars.
That frustration is entirely understandable. A recent study put Toronto traffic at the third worst in the world for congestion, behind only London and Dublin.
This sort of world-class congestion costs drivers in fuel costs (as well as stress levels) while increasing carbon-dioxide emissions.
But Ford’s solution is both ill-judged and offensive.
It won’t solve the problem it complains of. Indeed, it’s bound to make it worse. And along the way, Ford is once again trespassing on the municipal realm.
Admittedly, it likely makes for good politics in what might be the run-up to an early election Ford is reportedly musing on for next year. But it is bad policy.
Research from around the world has shown that bike lanes separated from cars are good for the safety of cyclists, pedestrians and motorists as well as helping the environment.
An American study published last November in the Journal of Transport and Health studied 13 years of traffic data and found that protected bike lanes make roads significantly safer for cyclists and other users.
Cities with dedicated bike lanes had 44 per cent fewer deaths and 50 per cent fewer serious accidents than other American cities.
Around the world, especially after the pandemic lockdown, cities have been deciding that providing cycling infrastructure gets more people moving in ways that benefit personal health and the environment.
Moreover, it isn’t cyclists and bike lanes that are the main culprits in creating gridlock. It is construction, road closures and traffic returning to pre-pandemic levels. Yes, the installation of bike lanes in some cities has contributed slightly to slowed traffic. But done right, as in Paris, London and other metropolises, these lanes have often had the opposite effect, leading to more cyclists and fewer cars on the road.
Unhappily, what cyclists have been doing is dying on Toronto roads with horrifying frequency.
Six cyclists have been killed in Toronto this year and, as Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner has pointed out, the Ford government’s plan is going to put cyclists in yet more danger and could well lead to more deaths.
Dianne Saxe, the councillor for University-Rosedale, where two cyclists have been killed this year, said the province is “gambling with people’s lives.”
Jurisdictionally speaking, the premier seems constitutionally incapable of sticking to his own knitting. He is proposing to directly attack municipalities, chiefly Toronto, and their capacity to make decisions based on local needs and knowledge.
As New Democrat MPP Joel Harden said, “this is putting wedge politics over real solutions.”
It’s as insulting as it is misguided. But, when it comes to wedge issues, the insult may well be part of the point.
When Ford spoke to reporters Monday there was little nuance, or sense of complexity, or citation of relevant research, or even much of a nod to the death and injury suffered by cyclists.
There was, instead, the overwrought language, the emoting, the type of black-and-white sensibility that divides citizens.
Research on cycling experiences in Canada and around the world was dismissed as “a bunch of hogwash.”
Cars and trucks were backed up “from here to Timbuktu.”
“It’s an absolute disaster!” he said. “It’s a nightmare!”
Whatever its electoral purposes, any policy justified by such histrionics — especially when it poaches on municipal affairs — should have Ontarians taking a good look under the hood.