Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Michael Longfield, Executive Director of Cycle Toronto: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1954

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

In this 1954th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Michael Longfield, Executive Director of Cycle Toronto, about what's next in Toronto's fight to save 19 km of bike lanes from being demolished by Doug Ford's PC Party.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to Toronto-Miked, it's the executive director of Cycle Toronto, Michael Longfield. Hello. Michael, how you doing, buddy? All things consider, not too bad.

Okay, and it's still a good time for me to carve 30 minutes of your life out that I can never get. of you back. True. I was going to start by being kind of a dick and just saying, hey, what's new? But then... Hey, I mean, you know, there are sort of other things, too. I, you know, visited my mom yesterday.

Had a nice, like, post-breakfast hang with her. So that was good. Okay. And your mom lives in Toronto? She does live in Toronto. Yeah. She lives not too far away from us. and it's a very convenient bike ride.

Okay, did you use the bluer bike lanes? I did not, no. So, you know, what really would it matter? Then I actually use side streets. So, you know, maybe I'm the hypocrite here. Sorry, I don't know how long I can keep up this sarcasm. I was going to say, like, I know one thing, Michael. Toronto is not a grid.

Sure isn't. No, it is not. and anyone who wants to try to say otherwise isn't really representing the facts of our street geography. Well, it doesn't know how to look at a, how to read a map. That's for starters here. So let's set the table, though, because, you know, we have to get serious. This is serious stuff. So you are, correct me if I'm wrong, FOTM, Michael Longfield, you are the executive director of Cycle Toronto.

Correct. It's a big title. Yeah. I guess so. And to remind listeners, you did make the trek to South Atobico in March 2026. It was episode 1861, and I'll just read what I wrote at the time, because it might help us set the table here. Sure. Mike chats with Cycle Toronto's executive director, Michael Longfield, about their court challenge against Bill 212,

the appeal by Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative Party, and the role of Cycle Toronto in defending protected bike lanes in Toronto. So we chatted for over an hour. But I'm going to just revisit one line I wrote there. So, you know, Doug Ford's progressive conservative party appealed your court challenge against Bill 212. So maybe remind us, in case people haven't heard episode 1861, remind us what Cycle Toronto did to challenge Bill 212.

and then tell us the results of this appeal. Well, I mean, of course, people should go back and to listen to that episode. I mean, I think that's a no-brainer. But, yeah, in terms of sort of where we are and how we got here, so the L212 is legislation that the province passed back in the fall of 2024, that basically would remove 19 kilometers of bike lanes under the premise that bike lanes were causing traffic congestion and we needed to get Toronto moving. We tried politically to slow that legislation and that failed.

The government has a very strong majority and lots of support outside of the city of Toronto. And so we launched a legal challenge against it and basically represented by lawyers from Ecojustice and Pallio Rowland made the argument that because the legislation was arbitrary in that my clients do not cause traffic. traffic congestion and the government's own experts know this, and that it was reckless because it would put people's lives at risk. It was in violation of Section 7 of the Charter. And in July of 2025, a judge ruled in our favor struck down the law and found it unconstitutional. And then when we spoke in March of this year, Cycle Toronto had just been through the appeal hearing because the province appealed that decision.

And so that appeal was heard in the end of January, 2026. and then on Friday we finally got the decision. And it wasn't a decision we were hoping for, but we're not over yet. It's not done. Okay, so let's explore that. So just definitively on the record, what was the decision?

Yeah, so, you know, I'm not a lawyer, so it's possible I get some of these details wrong. So please bear with me. And if you're, you know, viewers, listeners want to correct me, that's fine. But high level, basically the appeals, court ruled that governments don't need to heed the advice of their experts. And so Section 7 was not evoked here, regardless of what the government's experts did or didn't say.

And so, therefore, this is not in violation of the charter. What some of us are kind of sticking with or kind of unpacking is the decision then went on and then started picking apart our argument and started arguing with our facts and started saying, you know, like, hey, well, you know, maybe it's common sense that two lanes is more than one. And maybe that would help traffic congestion, which I think kind of surprised us in the decision too. So, and, you know, if I can be honest, I think it may be underplayed the real, like, life and death impact of bike claims and the impact of traffic violence on our streets. So, you know, I think there's there's a legal, uh, reading of what this means, and I think, you know, there are some very bright legal minds that

are thinking through it, including our lawyers, but also I think on a gut check level that the premier is trying to say this is a victory for common sense. I think a lot of folks who ride bikes feel that, you know, this may be belittled what it is they experience every day on our roads. Okay. Dumb question. I know the answer. Okay. I did my homework. But why are bike lanes specifically like separated bike lanes. Last time we talked about the difference between like a separated bike lane and paint. And then those, what are they called? Chevrons.

What are those called? Sherrods. Right. Chevrons on the roads. Go ahead. Yeah. But why are they important? Like the quote I took is, we as citizens of this fine province, we have the right to life and security of the person.

Like you, I'm not a lawyer, but tell us why, by. lanes are important. Yeah, so bike lanes and specifically protected by claims, as you mentioned, have a high level, have a very important traffic calming effect. So, you know, when, let's just take Blue or West as an example, which, you know, is still kind of the epicenter of a lot of this controversy. It's now back in the mayoral debate, which I'm sure it's its whole interesting thing. I haven't listened to your episode with the deputy mayor, but I'm sure it comes up there, too.

they have a really important traffic calming effect. And so a lot of the concerns around the travel times on Blur West are actually a result of the fact that fewer people are speeding because the bike lanes actually help slow things down into more appropriate speed for what is actually a very dense, a populated stretch of roadway. There are lots of businesses there, lots of people walking, lots of crosswalks too.

And so, you know, we don't want cars whipping through that stretch of the King's Way at 60 kilometers. Plus. And so my clients play a really big part of that. They also provide a very clear separation between road users, a physical separation that makes it both more comfortable for most people to choose to ride a bike and also more predictable for people driving. It's easier to know, like, I kind of know where the cyclists are, where most of them are and kind of have a better sense of where they're going to be. And so it can have a, you know, it can be very calming as a driver. Like I, you know, sometimes drive through this city as well.

Goodness help me. And I definitely feel more comfortable when there are protected bike lanes and there are cyclists beside me. Oh, I'm exactly the same way. People should know. I also, I'm also a motorist. Okay, I drive around the city as well. And I love it when there's a separated bike lane because it's like, you're right. I don't have to worry as much about hitting a cyclist.

You know, it's because they'll be in the separated bike lane. By way, Amber Morley, I did, I brought, I read a question for. from you and then I teased your episode. And she was eager to, she was eager to hear this chat because one of her big questions, which is my next question is, can you appeal the appeal? We, in theory, we can apply for leave to appeal. So, um, again, you know, it requires a, um, a legal argument as to why, but there is still the theoretical potential for us to try to take this to the Supreme court.

And that is something that, uh, we are. looking at. The Supreme Court isn't casual in terms of which cases it chooses to accept for obvious reasons. You know, the time energy of those justices is limited. But yeah, I think, you know, certainly from our perspective, the fact that we had a very strong decision in favor in the first to go around. And now we've got a arguably equally strong against this side. To me, again, not a lawyer, does sort of imply that, you know, maybe this is something the Supreme Court does need to spend a bit of time sorting out, and especially this issue of, you know, what should be the boundaries of legislation, especially when it will knowingly put people's lives at risk.

Again, that's the other part of this, too. This isn't a theoretical question about whether or not people, again, people's lives were put at risk or our opinion versus the government's. The original legislation that the government wrote actually has clauses in it to indemnify themselves and any contractor in the eventuality that somebody's killed or seriously injured as to remove these bike lanes. So the province knows that this will have a very dangerous effect on our roads. And even in terms of achieving their own goal, what we saw, certainly what we've been saying from the beginning, certainly what the province's own experts said, is that bike lanes do not

cause traffic congestion. And I imagine for a lot of folks in Etobico, if these bike lanes are gone, a lot of people that are currently biking will stop riding as much as they currently are. And that's going to mean more people in cars. And that's not going to be something anyone wants. So, you know, it's not as if this is about bikes versus cyclists or the cycling advocates won everyone stuck in traffic. This is about evidence-based decision-making.

And it's about respecting local democracy. These are bike lanes that city council has voted on many times. The deputy mayor's predecessor in this ward voted in favor of them when they were still being planned on a map. Two different mayors have voted in favor of these things. And at a certain point, it's like, can we please move on from these conversations? Like, when do we get to stop not arguing about the bluer west bike lanes? Because I think voters are that tired of this. So can legally, can the provincial government just rip up the, I guess it's 19 kilometers of protected bike lanes, which includes this bluer bike lane. Can they do that next week legally?

My understanding is technically they could choose to yes. I think there are lots of logistical pieces that were required to make that happen. These aren't simple engineering projects. The bikeway designs themselves are the results of planning from like, you know, experienced civil engineers. There's the additional costs of doing it, which the city is estimated would be possibly $40 million, if not more. We have a bit of a clue of what it might be because the, Eastbound section of Bloor just west of Islington, the province did restore one travel lane and the eastbound kept the bike lane and that cost nearly a million dollars to do less than a

kilometer. So, and that was one side of the road. So these aren't simple projects, but from a legal perspective, our understanding is if the Premier wanted to start next week, that technically is on the books. He has the power. He has a lot of power. Yeah. And I think that's one of the things that's really frustrating about this is, you know, from our perspective, from Cyclotronos perspective, we agree that this shouldn't be something that the courts are deciding. We, we, you know, in a functioning democracy, I would argue, that, you know, bike lane decisions are the sorts of things that are left up to city councilors and local mayors, that, you know, that the idea that the province of Ontario is going to spend time and energy looking block by block at every street

across 440 municipalities to decide where a bike lane should or shouldn't go. It's just a ridiculous use of, you know, provincial resources. And so, you know, our real hope on this is, you know, that the, you know, Mayor Lovicow is sort of talking that she's trying to work on a compromise. And I'm choosing to be optimistic about that in the short term, certainly from some. cycle Toronto's perspective. You know, this municipal election, I think, is a reminder that there is still a lot at stake for cycling in Toronto, that not everything is just in the premier's hands. Again, the fact the Blue West Bike claims were up for debate again, at least at a mayor

level, is a reminder that your vote still counts in October if you care about cycling. On that note, Michael. So I think it was like a day or two before the appeal that Doug Ford's government won. Brad Bradford issued a statement. Okay? So I'm going to read it. I read this to Amber, too, we talked about it. But Brad, who's running for mayor, and it's starting to look, I mean, Chris Alexander is not pulling very well.

It's starting to size up as Olivia Chow versus Brad Bradford, which is what we've thought for quite some time now. So Brad Bradford, these words belong to him and his press release here. As mayor, I'll take the bike lanes on Bloor Street West. from South King's Way to Resurrection Road out in my first year and restore the vehicle lanes. And I'll build cyclists something better than a painted line

on an arterial road, a real network of trails in our ravines and hydro corridors, plowed in winter, and roots on quieter streets. So that's directly from Brad. So maybe respond to that before I kind of drill into some specifics here, but what do you,

And we're still going to try to keep this to half an hour, right? Yeah, well, I'm looking. I think you can, I think you can do it. Double speed. Yeah, well, I mean, geez, Louise, I'm already speaking double speed. So one, I don't think the mayor of Toronto has the power to choose to install or remove a bike lane. I think he's saying he's committed as mayor to bringing forward motions that council would need to vote on. but I think like we saw under Rob Ford, the mayor powers are limited.

Even within the strong mayor context, a lot of that is around housing issues. So let's just put that out there first. Secondly, I'm not sure the reference to paint because as we talked about, the bluer west bike lanes are not paint. They are protected and separated infrastructure. And you would know this better than me, Mike. I was on it today, by the way. I'll just point out.

I had to do some blood work on Bluer near Islington, and I was on that very stretch of Bluer Bike Lane today. What's your question? Oh, so this. If we're looking at a east-west connection for the three, four kilometers of the Blurr-West extension, there is not a network of side streets that will replace them. It is, as we talked about before, it is a fact of geography. It does not exist.

And that's even taking, let's just take for a moment about whether or not it's ideal for people to be riding that long on a side street. You know, certainly from my experience, you know, most of my commuting to work downtown at SecoTrono HQ is on protected by planes or on contraflow by claims. I'm very lucky to live in a part of the city with a connected network. It's in part because of the counselors who are here now and we're here before. but the scariest part of my trip is the last 500 meters when I leave the bluer bikeways and go through the side street to get to my house. And mercy me, you have never seen a driver pissed. I mean, you probably have.

But if you want to annoy a driver, ride a bike on a side street at 15 kilometers per hour as somebody's rushing to get to the stop sign 200 meters ahead of you. It can be a really scary experience. And so like the experience of side streets isn't. always very comfortable. And if we're going to talk about what we'll build a network of bike lanes on side streets, again, the controversy around the Blur West Bike lanes that we saw and that folks like Balance on Blur tried to amplify, I think, very bad faith because most of that petition was done while the bike lanes were still being built and while the traffic chaos was at its

worst, that said, compared to the lively debates, let's call it, that you might have a public consultation about an arterial bike lane, you tell someone they're going to lose street parking in front of their house because you're going to build a bike lane there. And people lose their minds. And to some extent rightly so, you think about your curve as an extension of your house. It's not, but it's understandable. And so, you know, imagine the political fight that's going to be required to go to all these side streets through the King's Way and say, oh, by the way, you're losing your street

parking or there's now this bike lane here and folks, you have to deal with it because Doug Ford wants to do something. you know, on Blur. It, it, like, baffles the mind. And again, it's not based on anyone's experience going through these processes. But, Michael, it's almost a moot point. You're making such such great points, but it's moot because, because we set off the top, you know, Toronto's not a grid. There are parts of Toronto, I see, that are grid-esque. But when it comes to this, we'll call it the Humber River. I like to paddle the Humber River, but you can't go north of Bluer when you paddle the Humber River. But the Humber River, there's a Tobico Creek for a

variety of reasons. And I again, I said this to Amber, so if you're listening back to back, I sound like a broken record. But please, Mr. Bradford, and I will eventually, I mean, he's a friend of the show. I'll be in his presence

and I can look him in the eyes and I can ask him this very question. But here's a map. I did this on TorontoMike.com as a blog and I posted on LinkedIn and I tagged him and I'm certain he saw it. But here's a map. Please, with a red marker,

just draw a map on this side street that can take you east-west to get over the Humber River. This, and I was talking to Amber about this, I was thinking there's Dundas Street West, which they're never going to, you're never going to put a bike lane on Dundas Street West in this neck of the woods.

That's a little bit north of bluer. It's kind of, you know, it's kind of curvy, like an ass that does weird stuff. But then if you drop south, the only thing I can think of, you do have the Queens Way, okay? Just only two, what, two kilometers away? How far is it from?

Is it a quarter and a half? It's like, I should know this. It's about, it's more than that, I think. So, because I'm on the waterfront trail, as you know. And from the waterfront trail to Bluer, we're talking like eight, I want to say, eight kilometers or so. So may, it's, I don't hold me to it.

I got to bring out my, my map here. But the Queensway, you know, shout out to Mama Martinos and Tom's Dairy Free, a couple of South Atobical institutions on the Queensway. Oh, and the Elmwood, which I just went to with my daughter and had a great legs beer, and I had a delicious, wings and fries. And I'm digging this Elmwood, which is like rural York and Queensway.

So I'm shutting out. I know this area of Queensway too, quite, quite well. You got to get by the Ontario food terminals that's there. Yeah. And you got this park lawn mall stuff and everything. Like, unless they're going to put a separated bike lane on the Queensway,

like Brad Bradford has to show me this magical, what do you call side street, but quieter street, I think is the words in his thing. Like, it just, you just tell me, why don't,

why don't you tell me? me the alternative route if you're going to rip up the bluer bike lane. I don't see it. No, and this is something too that, you know, we heard from Premier Ford, Minister Sakaria, back in fall of 2024 that, you know, I'm not against bike lanes, just put them on side streets. We have not, it's been two years. We have not seen or heard any proposals from them about where these bike lanes can or shouldn't go. And I think this is something too that gets very frustrating from a cycling advocacy perspective is, you know, when we were doing this a decade ago, and I wasn't at Cycle Toronto, but I was just somebody who cared about bikes and, you know,

would show up to consultations and, you know, whatever, it was at least clearer when people would say they weren't in favor of bike claims. Like they were just more upfront about it. They were just not in favor. And it's interesting the way the discourse has changed now where nobody's opposed to bike claims. Like, no, no, but everyone agrees cyclists should be safe. But, when it comes to actually making the tax decisions about where they need to go, everyone just sort of does the more conventional NIMBY thing, like, well, over there, not here thing. Well, get it off the main streets. I've heard this this week, a couple of people just get it off the main street.

They actually don't cycle a point out, but they say get it off the main street. And then I ask the question, which street would you like it on? Yeah. And so, like, I think it sometimes makes this discourse a little harder because you have this, you know, I'm not against by claims, but take them off the main street. or, and then you start trying to, like, say, like, where are they going to go? And, you know, the conversation devolves. And it's unfortunate.

I think that's one of the things I find very unfortunate about this is, and I think we talked about this back in March. Yeah. It is now very hard to have rational growing up conversations around transportation issues and cycling in particular. And I think that is very unfortunate. It is completely okay to not approve of every bike lane the city builds or have questions about what routes they're prioritizing where, not even,

were always a thousand percent enthusiastic about the cities by clean decisions. Normally, it's about them not doing enough, but, you know, bear with me. It just become extremely polarized. And frankly, I take solace that, you know, maybe this is confirmation bias, but I kind of take solace that, like, let's call it our side, Mike, seems to be the one that's approaching this with a lot more nuance, with a lot more understanding and a much more appreciation of, the facts on the ground on this. And, you know, too often I just sort of hear a blanket no or,

you know, uh, social media insults or whatever if you try to suggest otherwise, uh, on stuff. But, you know, this is why I'm here. I have a thick skin. Um, it's why this organization exists and still needs to exist. Um, but yeah, it's a bit disappointing that we're kind of in this, um, uh, this moment. Multiple times in this chat, you've, uh, clarified. that you are not a lawyer because people though, I'm also not a lawyer, but nobody thinks I'm a lawyer, but is it, let me guess that

people sometimes think you're a lawyer, am I right? Well, just for the association with the legal challenge itself, it might assume that I might be or not. It's also not uncommon for folks to confuse Dave Sheldnott and I, because we're two middle age-ish, white guys-ish,

who talk about bikes in the news, so there's that too. but also just we'll say again, not a lawyer. So, okay, so because I do want to keep my promise, 30 minutes of Michael Longfield. So when will we know if you good people are going to try to appeal the appeal and put it in front of the Supreme Court? Yeah, I don't have a good answer for that one, Mike. Again, there are a few moving pieces on that, but it's certainly not something that we plan on, you know, dithering on indefinitely. It is a reminder, though, too, about, you know, this back being a political issue, political debate.

And certainly, you know, we're choosing to remain optimistic, you know, because of the recent comments from the mayor, from, you know, having a strong champion on this project in Deputy Mayor Morley, too, that, you know, it doesn't seem like this is something the city is just going to roll over and say, okay, this current city and this current mayor and this current counselor, it's just going to easily roll over and say, okay, Doug, here you go. I think there are stretches of the bike lanes that could be reconfigured to move parking and restore travel lanes. Again, even that has serious consequences for how people would access stores and businesses and the kinds of decisions that were made during public consultations to accommodate accessible parking and these other things. None of this is straightforward, but fortunately, the fact that it's not easy and straightforward also gives me hope that, you know, I'm not going to wake up at least tomorrow morning and find 19 kilometers of my claims are gone. What about a protest? Are we organizing any protests against this legislation?

It's all TBD, Mike. It's still pretty hot, still pretty new. And again, I think, you know, just sort of really important in the short term in terms of what I've been doing is trying to talk to as much media as possible to, you know, get our points out there. I've been very encouraged to just sort of hear from a lot of. reporters that, you know, just have questions about, like, is this actually going to work? And what will actually happen if these bike lanes are gone? I think the, the tenor of the conversation is much different than it was two years ago, where I think it was easier to just accept what the premier, what the minister were saying at face value, because they're the premier and they're the minister. They should know. But, you know, two years and with our previous

win and with all the work we've done so far, I think people have a better understanding that, you know, it's not by claims they're causing traffic congestion. It's, you know, poorly coordinated roadwork and construction. And frankly, you know, too many people having too few transportation options. I don't, you know, I think when I went, you know, when I came by and saw you before, you know, I wasn't riding a bike at that point regularly. You know, I'm still recovering from the broken leg. I, you know, took the bus down and I think I was 10, 15 minutes late from our planned interview. So, man, people need more transportation options, not less.

And bike lanes are a really big part of that. So since Friday's decision, do you find people are just like, Michael, what's next? What's next? There's a lot of what's next. But I think people are also just appreciating us hearing that, you know, this isn't over still, you know, speaking. I don't want to say our truth because it implies there's another truth, but still talking about the case, talking about the facts. Again, this isn't about Cycle Toronto's experts versus the provincial government's experts. Both sides agreed

by claims don't cause traffic congestion. Both sides agreed that removing them will put people's lives at risk. It is a question of what this means in terms of the charter, but again, especially given that we had such a strong ruling before and there are kind of these open questions about the appeal decision. Again, I understand it on some level. Yeah, it just gives us pause to think maybe there's something to take here to the Supreme Court as well. Well, Michael, I appreciate you and I'm honored you took 30 minutes out of your busy day to

fill me in and what's going on and when there's a protest planned, let me know. I will, yeah. Thanks, Mike. All right, thanks for doing this. All right. And that brings us to the end of our 1,000-9504th show.

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