Brad Bradford pledges to rip up Bloor Street bike lanes, build up ravine trails if elected mayor - Toronto Star

The councillor conceded that in 2023 he voted to build the lanes he's now pledging to remove.

Brad Bradford, councillor for Beaches—East York, is running for mayor against Olivia Chow.

Mayoral candidate Brad Bradford says if he’s elected in October, one of his first acts will accomplish something Premier Doug Ford has been unable to thus far: rip out a controversial stretch of bike lanes along Bloor Street West in Etobicoke, which both of them insist slows traffic. 

“In many respects, this is a part of town that has come to be defined by congestion,” said Bradford to reporters Tuesday morning at Bloor West and Islington Avenue. “I’ve talked to the servers who have watched the lunch rush get a little bit thinner month after month. I have seen fire trucks and the ambulances stuck, lights on, sirens blaring, not able to respond to the emergency they’re trying to get to.”

Bradford conceded that, in 2023, he voted to build the very bike lanes he was now pledging to remove but said he regretted the decision. The lanes made sense on paper, he said, but community feedback proved them a mistake. He said he has the “humility” to acknowledge that and the “courage” to fix it. 

Echoing the premier, Bradford said major roads are ill-suited for bike lanes. While Ford has said they should instead be relegated to “secondary roads,” Bradford said his preference is to have them in parks and ravines. As mayor, he said he would renew efforts to build out trail networks in these places, such as the Loop Trail linking the Don and Humber river valleys and the Meadoway in Scarborough. He said these routes, not yet fully built, have “languished” for years and would be completed during his mayoralty.