Of all the asinine battles the premiers of Ontario and Alberta have chosen to fight, the war against bike lanes has got to be one of the most specious. Now that the courts have smacked Ontario Premier Doug Ford upside the head for trying to remove bike lanes along Bloor Street, University Avenue and Yonge Street, Ford and his Alberta counterpart Danielle Smith should surrender and move on to more important matters.

Both have a lot on their plates at the moment; housing shortages, a bruising trade war with the US and threats from wildfires to name just a few. But that hasn’t stopped Ford and now Smith from targeting bike lanes they blame for gridlock problems plaguing both cities. They studiously ignore evidence to the contrary that shows encouraging cycling with lanes that make biking safer invariably means fewer cars on the road. 

But this battle has never been evidence-based. It’s all about politics and the divide between the interests of voters living in city centres, who are less likely to vote for Ford or Smith, and those in the car-dependent suburbs who support them. How bicycles, which predated cars powered by internal combustion engines by about 70........

© National Observer