Rally and Ride for Road Safety

Queen’s Park was back in session on Monday after an extended holiday and the first order of business was Bill 212 called “The Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act”. This bill would require municipalities to get provincial approval for bike lanes that remove traffic lanes – except for those tendered and started construction once the bill takes effect – as well as review existing bike lanes. To make matters worse, Premier Doug Ford mentioned he plans to remove existing bike lanes on Bloor, University, and Yonge. Hundreds of people came out yesterday in response to this irresponsible (and unprecedented) legislation which you can submit comments on until Wednesday, November 20.

A small crowd already assembled at Queen’s Park by the time I got there before 4:30 PM.

Janet Joy Wilson also had an “Evil Cycling Lobby” shirt on, so I had to get a photo of us.

Queen’s Park started to fill up ahead of the start of the speeches.

Cycle Toronto’s Alison Stewart (and Toronto’s Bicycle Mayor) kicked things off.

Jess Spieker of Friends & Families for Safe Streets (FFSS) talked about her near-death experience (as always), as well as some statistics such as over 600 people getting killed on Ontario’s roads last year and another 36,000 injured. She reminded us how the focus on bike lanes is a distraction from many other problems including how 2.5 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor.

NDP MPP Joel Harden – who biked from Ottawa to Toronto last September for his Safety Ride – called out Ford’s irresponsible plan to reimburse municipalities for ripping out bike lanes and talked about 16-year-old Audrey who suffered a cracked helmet and pelvis while riding her scooter in Ottawa.

Liberal MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon talked about her record of supporting the Woodbine bike lanes while in council despite the controversies and called on Ford to stay in his lane. She called bullshit on the Ford government’s use of outdated statistics such as 1.2% cycle mode share from 2011.

Green MPP Aislinn Clancy recognized the presence of Cycle WR and said the bike lane ban was smoke and mirrors for Ford’s corruption including the RCMP Greenbelt investigation, Ontario Science Centre, Ontario Place, and the transit fiascos.

Hamilton Centre MPP Sarah Jama said an attack on bike lanes is an attack on the working class who only have bikes to get around, as well as on disabled people who use bike lanes.

Since nobody from the Progressive Conservative party showed up, Jess played a clip from TVO’s Political Blind Date which exposed how Ford himself felt unsafe without protected bike lanes. Burn!

Bike Brampton’s David Laing biked from Brampton to Queen’s Park and was part of fifteen people representing that city. He apologized to Toronto for causing traffic congestion and the colour of the stripes of the MPP’s (blue for conservative), as well as talked about the reliance of GO transit by gig workers.

Sarah Buchanan of the Toronto Environmental Alliance gave a shout out to parents who biked with their kids and how her son loves riding on the Bloor bike lanes (including asking for a cookie). She said Ford wants to take cookies away from children and she wouldn’t stop at businesses on streets without bike lanes.

Cycle Toronto’s Michael Longfield recently sprained his knee but was still able to ride which showed how bicycles are mobility devices. He said cycling talking points are mainstream – not Ford – and that we won’t tolerate compromises from the City of Toronto.

Dr. Sahil Gupta is an emergency room physician who sees injuries every day from pedestrians and cyclists. He talked about a cyclist who got seriously injured when picking up biking during COVID, as well as how it’s safe streets and not hospitals that save people.

Kendrew Pape joined FFSS when his sister Kim was killed on a crosswalk in Newmarket by a driver named Virginia seven years ago. He reminded us how grief and suffering keep on delivering year after year, as well as the need for more traffic calming such as bike lanes instead of less.

Joey Schwartz gave us the ride itinerary which would go along Hoskin, St. George, Bernard, and Avenue before returning to Queen’s Park. We would pass by four ghost bikes for Dalia Chako, Ali Sezgin Armagan, Miguel Joshua Escanan, and an unnamed 24-year-old woman. He said Avenue Road could get ripped out too if Ford were to get his way.

Due to the large number of cyclists, it took us a while to clear Queen’s Park.

On Wellesley Street heading up to Hoskin Avenue.

Turning onto Hoskin Avenue.

Riding north on St. George Street.

Regrouping at the St. George and Bloor protected intersection.

I recorded a video at St. George and Bernard where I counted almost 500 cyclists. Albert Koehl of TCBC informed me there were at least another 200 cyclists after that group.

Faraz Gholizadeh of Safe Parkside. He was one of the speakers during Tuesday’s IEC meeting which discussed Parkside Drive. A project which could be rejected under Ford’s new legislation.

Look at all the cyclists on Avenue Road!

Back at Queen’s Park where Joey thanked people for riding before we dispersed.

Thanks to all of you for attending the ride, as well as to the dozens of groups who helped put it together and MPP’s of all stripes (except for the Conservatives).

Thanks to Alison Stewart for this picture with the full sign I brought and unfortunately lost during the ride.

You can read more about the ride on CityNews, the Toronto Star, and CBC.