Tell City Council NOT to cancel the Sheppard Ave bike lanes!

Thanks to RZaichkowski for bringing this up. Please email Council voicing your frustration about this. Feel free to copy/paste this email template, it only takes a minute.

Email to:

councilmeeting@toronto.ca

mayor_chow@toronto.ca

Your city councillor

Subject: Please vote NO to Item - 2025.MM33.5

Dear Mayor Chow and Members of Toronto City Council:

I wish to express my deep disappointment with Councillor Carroll’s and Burnside’s motion to cancel the tender of the Sheppard Avenue East complete street project from Bayview Avenue to Leslie Street and to defer until provincial approval can be granted.

Sadly, this is not the only time Toronto City Council has deferred (or cancelled) bikeway projects recently including the Beltline Gap Connections (including Marlee Avenue), Jones Avenue Upgrades, and proposed contraflows on Logan and Carlaw Avenues. The eglintonTOday project is also at risk with the road being recently resurfaced without bike lanes due to repeated Eglinton Crosstown LRT delays, while proposed bikeways on Dupont, Danforth (east of Victoria Park), and Parkside were put on hold because of Bill 212.

These bikeway delays are unacceptable as they go against Toronto’s own Vision Zero and TransformTO climate action goals. The City of Toronto needs to start publicly calling out the Ford government to release their approval criteria for bike lanes which require removing traffic lanes. If they fail to do so, the City needs to start defying the Ford government and implement the Sheppard complete street as soon as possible along with others across the city given how far behind Toronto is with their bikeway construction targets. Through the hard work done over the years by city staff, we know that bike lanes make streets safer for ALL road users, improve business activity, help achieve climate action, and lead to minimal traffic impacts which get routine tweaks over time.

Please vote NO to this motion and instead stick to the plan of building the Sheppard Avenue East complete street project from Bayview Avenue to Leslie Street!

Cyclists and transit riders vote. There is a municipal election in just over a year. If you want us to vote for you, please do the right thing and build the infrastructure that keeps us safe on our roads.

Thank you,

[your name]