Ontario restoring vehicle lanes
Bike lane removal proceeding in Toronto
Following the recent ruling from the Ontario Court of Appeal, the provincial government has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to begin the process of restoring motor vehicle lanes that were previously removed for bike lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street, University Avenue, Queen’s Park, Queen’s Park Crescent and Avenue Road in Toronto. The province is also immediately beginning to restore motor vehicle lanes on Bloor Street West, starting east of a 600-metre section at Clissold Road where vehicle lanes were restored in December 2025.
The province has issued an RFP to study and provide design options for restoring vehicle lanes on sections of Bloor Street, Yonge Street, University Avenue, Queen’s Park, Queen’s Park Crescent and Avenue Road. The RFP will also identify options to retain or reconfigure bike lanes, where they make sense and do not make gridlock worse. To get drivers moving quickly, the vehicle lane restoration process will immediately begin on the west section of Bloor Street West starting at Clissold Road, where minimal design work is required.
The RFP follows Ontario’s successful appeal of a court challenge to the province’s bike lane framework. The Court of Appeal unanimously found that decisions about the design of public roadways are policy matters for the elected Legislature, not the courts.
