City commitee calls for Yonge St. bike lanes to be permanent

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A battle over controversial bike lanes on Yonge St. is headed to city council next month.

The bike lanes, part of the Active TO Midtown Complete Streets Pilot, were installed during the summer of 2021 between Bloor St. and Davisville Ave.

The city’s infrastructure and environment committee on Monday voted to make the lanes permanent and also called for a study of road safety on side streets in the area.

On Monday, committee members heard from bike advocates, area residents, environmentalists, business groups and others who wished to weigh in on the lanes and whether they should be made permanent or removed.

Nearly all who oppose the lanes becoming permanent on Yonge said they were in favour of bike lanes, generally.

However, as some presenters made clear, not all bike lanes are created equal. Area residents — many of whom are bike riders — spoke about the vehicle congestion on Yonge that has resulted from the installation of the bike lanes.

That congestion is an issue for emergency vehicles and for anyone living on side streets that lead into that section of Yonge. 

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People who live on those side streets addressed how traffic spills over from Yonge to their narrow residential streets — where cars and trucks often go up on the sidewalk as the streets don’t have room for a steady stream of traffic in both directions.

One person spoke of his child being hit on one of these side streets when a vehicle mounted the curb. Another talked about how an ambulance could not get to her in an emergency.

Residents in the area feel they are being thrown under the bus — kind of literally — in all this.

There appears to be a disconnect between the ideal and the reality in this situation.

The elephant in the room appears to be a perceived lack of attention to what will happen when construction starts on the 18 to 20 new condo towers that have been approved for that strip of Yonge — not to mention subway improvements coming at three stops and a large water main project, all in the same area.

There will be 10,000 new residents in the neighbourhood over the coming years, but no word on how the city plans to handle this uptick in density.

More than one speaker questioned the data that has been presented, as it suggests very little traffic disruption has resulted from the bike lane installation.