NEWS – June 14, 2023

TORONTO – Thanks to a dedicated young campaign worker, Mayoral Candidate Anthony Furey today illustrated how the RapidTO program to turn vehicle lanes into red painted bus and bike lanes isn’t living up to the hype and needs to be paused. 

“A campaign worker stood on a bridge that overlooked Morningside Drive and tallied all of the cars, buses and bicycles,” Furey said. “This was carefully tracked from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 13.”:

• Total number of vehicles: 4,127 (an average of approximately 32 cars per minute)
• Total number of transit buses: 26 (an average of approximately five minutes per bus passage)
• Total number of bicycles (including a person in a scooter who in fact used the sidewalk): seven

“To be clear, that’s more than 4,000 vehicles, versus six bikes,” Furey noted. “The RapidTO program isn’t living up to expectations. It’s just worsening peoples’ commutes and making life more stressful for Scarborough residents.”

As Mayor of Toronto, Furey will conduct a more formal study with a view to removing the RapidTO lanes in Scarborough along Eglinton East, Kingston and Morningside. He will also halt the planned roll out of RapidTO along Jane, Dufferin, Steeles, Finch and Lawrence.

Furey has already announced he will remove existing dedicated bike lane infrastructure from Hospital Row along University Avenue, where these lanes obstruct emergency vehicles, and areas under heavy construction, he added. He will also seriously review other dedicated bike lanes, including the much-loathed Yonge Street bike lane.

He will also not proceed with plans for lanes along Sheppard, all of Eglinton, Bloor West and Kingston.

“The people of this City tell me that they’re tired of this obsession with cramming bike lanes onto every major road,” Furey concluded. “I’m open to more bike lanes on non-major roads, but first we have to bring some sanity back to the conversation.”

MEDIA CONTACT

Mike Bendixen | Senior Media Advisor
The Anthony Furey for Mayor Campaign
Telephone: 416-951-6397
media@furey.ca