If you think that culture wars over transport issues are a purely British phenomenon, think again. I have just been in Toronto where the forces of light and dark are waging an almighty battle over cycle lanes.
Yes, those thin strips of road allocated to people who are a tad more vulnerable on the roads than other users have attracted the ire of the premier of Ontario, a mini Trump of a politician called Doug Ford who likes to shout and tell porkies like the balding bloke below.
The weird structure of Canadian local government is the root cause of this conflict. Toronto is not exactly full of cycle lanes but over the years, thanks to strong lobbying from activists and the support of a few enlightened councillors, several main roads now have separated sections and there are even some through routes but as Albert Koehl, a long time local cycling campaigner who agreed to be interviewed for my podcast, Calling All Stations said, ‘ there is nothing like a network, just a few sections’. Indeed, he remembers that for several years the only cycle path in the 1970s was a very short section up a steep hill.
At least things have improved since then, but Ford wants to put the clock back by taking out several of these hard won tracks. It is odd that Ford, who runs the province of Ontario, is able to control roads in the city despite the mayor, Olivia Chow, wanting to expand the number of cycle tracks. Ford has not set out a coherent plan to remove the cycle lanes, which would cost tens of millions of dollars, but rather used the issue as a way of reinforcing his mainly rural base. He claims that the paths slow down traffic and removing them will relieve congestion. He has singled out a couple of cycle lanes which Koehl point out are those which are on his route between his home and the Ontario state offices.: ‘It really seems to be down to the fact that he thinks his route to work is slowed down by cyclists’.
Inevitably the matter has the courts and so far they have supported the cyclists. In the lower court judgement, the judge was unimpressed with the fact that Ford’s arguments were not based on any evidence and seemed to be poorly thought through. The crucial point was that by taking out cycle lanes, the government would be putting its citizens lives at risk, something which ran counter to the Canada’s constitution. So he threw out the plan, though inevitably Ford is trying to take it to a higher court where the case may well come up against the same fundamental stumbling block. Koehl is hopeful that this will be the case and is angered by the whole situation: ’we know what works in towns and cities and it is not allowing total free rein for cars. In so many places, it has been shown that where you create safer and more pleasant urban spaces, not only do they make people’s lives better but also they are good for the economy. It is a shame that like adolescents, people like Ford have to make all the same mistakes that their predecessors have. ‘
Toronto has a history of battles between those who believe in the cult of the car and those who challenge the idea that urban spaces should be designed around the needs of vehicles rather than people. A new subway line, number 5, is just about to be opened in the city after more than 30 years of gestation. It had been given the go ahead in the mid eighties and work started in 1994. Then a new mayor, Mike Harris was elected the following year and promptly not only stopped construction, even though $100m had been spent, he then ordered the filling in of the tunnels that had been completed. Work then started again in 2011 but was subject to numerous delays, partly due to changes in design, but now at last the line is about to open at a cost around six times more than the original estimate. The new line will in fact be a game changer for a whole section of the city. It is just because of ill-conceived opposition, it is opening a decade later than it should have. History is now repeating itself over cycling.