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PRESS RELEASE: Community forces Council to back down on discount fare increases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE: Ford needs to stay in his lane on bike lanes
OTTAWA - Horizon Ottawa is condemning the Ford government’s decision today around cycling infrastructure and demanding that Ottawa City Councillors and the Mayor take a stand against the proposed policy.
Today, the Ford government announced that it is officially introducing legislation that will bar bike lanes that “reduce lanes of vehicle traffic.” This comes only weeks after hinting that they would be putting forward measures to limit the ability of municipalities to input bike lanes.
Just this month alone, three cyclists have been seriously injured in Ottawa. Two were killed in September. Between 2018 and 2021, the CBC reported that 54 cyclists had been seriously injured while seven died. In Toronto, the number of road fatalities which included 12 pedestrians and 6 cyclists had already surpassed 2023 numbers by September, with numbers continuing to dangerously grow.
In its Official Plan, the City of Ottawa plans to add dozens of cycling routes across the city by 2046 and increase the number by 50%. This new policy would make it increasingly more difficult to do so.
“The evidence actually suggests the opposite, that bike lanes reduce congestion. This decision just makes it more dangerous for everyone including motorists and more difficult to implement the city-approved Official Plan.” said Ethan-Smith Johnson, a Board Member of Horizon Ottawa. “This is just another attempt to start a divisive culture war that will benefit no one except for Ford’s lobbyist friends - his government shouldn’t be playing politics with people’s lives, councillors need to oppose this.”
This is one of many examples of the Ford government meddling into the decisions of municipalities. Notably, in 2018, the government cut Toronto City Council in half, in 2020, they got rid of the ability of cities to implement ranked balloting and over the past four years, they have implemented over 100 zoning ordinances to dictate local planning.
The legislation does not only require cities to get approval from the Minister to add in new bike lanes but the Minister also said it could require cities to also remove existing bike lanes that “hinder car traffic.”
“If Doug Ford and his Transportation Minister wanted to make decisions for municipalities, they should have run for City Council,” said Smith-Johnson. “This government has shown a dangerous and consistent pattern of infringing on the democracy of local government and our council needs to take a stand to not only oppose this legislation but also this constant overreach that will only see more, not less bureaucracy to provide good services to residents across the city.”
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