LILLEY: Ford's bike lane promise so popular, opposition won't attack

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Doug Ford’s promise to stop the expansion of bike lanes and even rip out some existing ones is so popular that the opposition doesn’t want to speak against it.

Sure, NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie have been dismissive of Ford’s bike lane plans, but they haven’t really attacked the idea.

Can you really blame them?

Most people in this province, roughly 75%, get to work using their own car or as part of a car pool. Just shy of 15% commute via public transit, 5% walk and just over 1% commute to work or school using a bike.

In January, in most of the province, that number is zero.

Meanwhile, we have bike lanes popping up in municipalities across the province, but especially in Toronto. Spend any amount of time watching the number of cars versus the number of bicycles and you’ll see a massive, lopsided discrepancy.

Cars are stuck in traffic, while the odd bike that does show up whizzes past with no concerns.

What’s worse, for much of the day, especially in Toronto, these bike lanes are mostly used by Uber Eats and DoorDash delivery riders. We’re spending huge sums of money to subsidize getting people their burgers and butter chicken delivered faster.

Meanwhile, Doug Ford has been doubling down on the issue, saying at a speech to the Empire Club in Toronto last week that he wants to do more than just stop expansion.

“It isn’t enough to keep an eye on future bike lanes,” Ford said. “We need to and will remove and replace existing bike lanes on primary roads that are bringing traffic in our cities to a standstill.”

Those should sound like fighting words to the NDP and the Liberals and yet, they aren’t taking the bait. Pressed on the issue Thursday morning during an interview on Newstalk 1010, Stiles expressed sympathy with frustrated drivers.

“I think a lot of people are frustrated, I am too, you know, and sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, like a lot of new listeners right now, I’m sure, and bike lanes and construction are a big part of the traffic,” Stiles said.

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She went on to note that the Bloor bike lane runs right through her riding without saying if she supported or opposed the bike lane. That saw host John Moore push Stiles for an answer he didn’t really get.

“I guess I would ask you quite blankly, if the bike lane is in your riding, would you go to bat for it, or is the Premier right that it needs to go?” Moore asked.

Stiles answered that there have been several iterations of the bike lane, that it has been tweaked and perhaps needs to be tweaked some more.

“I don’t think that the Premier should tear that out, I don’t think it’s helpful to people,” she said in a less than full-throated defence.

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Crombie, meanwhile, has spent most of her time answering questions on this issue claiming Ford wants to be mayor of Toronto. There’s some merit in that, the Premier spends far too much time focused on Toronto compared to the rest of the province, but Toronto is the biggest and most important city in the entire country, never mind the province.

But the claim that Ford should simply focus on improving public transit, as Stiles and Crombie have done, is laughable.

The Ford government is currently building Toronto’s first major subway expansion in decades with the Ontario Line. They’re extending the current subway system north and are putting billions into new cars for the existing Line 2.

They’ve pledged billions for Ottawa’s LRT expansion, an LRT system expansion in Mississauga and Brampton and a new LRT line in Hamilton. They have dramatically expanded the GO Transit system of commuter trains and buses across Southern Ontario faster than anyone expected.

The opposition parties aren’t attacking Ford’s plans for bike lanes for one simple reason – they know Ford’s plans are popular with voters.

blilley@postmedia.com