Premier Doug Ford’s bike lane removal and street reconfiguration plans may already be underway in Toronto but the battle over the future of cycling in the city continues.

On Saturday, dozens of cycling advocates took that battle to the streets of Toronto, not just to the protected bike lanes along Bloor Street, but to the so-called secondary roads that Ford wants to move them to.

“We did a call out to the premier and other elected officials to come join us on this ride as we try to navigate the side streets and multi-use trails to replicate this stretch of Bloor that’s a threat of being removed,” said Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto.

“There’s a reason why the City of Toronto builds bike lanes where they do, there’s a reason why Bloor, Yonge and University have the bike lanes that there are. City council has voted on these lanes multiple times under multiple mayors, this isn’t something that Olivia Chow decided to do by pointing at lines on a map.”

The route avoiding bike lanes through the city’s west end turned what should have been a relatively short, flat jaunt along Bloor into a nine kilometre weaving journey with plenty of elevation, along with dozens of bikes taking up entire lanes of traffic.

“We were going through schools, we were going up these crazy hills. It was nearly double the distance. Trying to do this on a day-to-day basis would be nearly impossible,” said one of the cyclists who attened the rally. “We even had a kid literally get injured in the first half an hour, he fell into a ditch because these side streets are not set up for this sort of infrastructure.”

Premier Doug Ford’s plan to rip out nearly 20 kilometres of protected bike lanes that stretch across Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue was originally blocked by an Ontario court last summer. But in August, the Ontario Court of Appeal reversed that decision, overturning a previous lower-court decision which found the plan created an unconstitutional risk to cyclist safety.

Cycling advocates called the ruling an unfortunate setback, saying removing the bike lanes will simply put lives in danger.

“Cars have their space, I have my space. Without the bike lanes I would not have had the courage to be cycling in Toronto. Before I thought it was suicidal,” said another cyclist.

“I’m car-free, I get around by bicycle, and the huge change that these lanes made for me and other cyclists – and pedestrians, by the way, because there’s traffic calming involved,” added another cyclist.

Mayor Olivia Chow has said that the city presented the province with a plan to not only restore traffic lanes but maintain the protected bike lanes. But the province rejected that proposal, walking away from the discussions.

“Doug Ford, stay in your lane,” was the message from NDP MPP for Parkdale-High Park Alex Gilmour, who also took part in Saturday’s ride. “The municipal government, the mayor, the city councils that are elected are doing a great job, and at the province, we need to do a good job of what is ours to do. So, I’m here to protect the bike lanes, to protect the safety of the children in Parkdale-High Park, and I’m here to tell Doug Ford hand’s off and focus on the things that are crumbling around us.”

“He pretends to be Captain Canada, he pretends to be a mayor of Toronto, where is our premier? We need someone who is looking at health care, affordability, good jobs, housing, and leaving the municipal affairs to the good people of Toronto.”

Ford has long complained that bike lanes create gridlock, even citing a report from the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis, which found gridlock costs Ontario $56 billion annually.

Earlier this month, the province issued a new request for proposals (RFP) to study and propose design options for restoring vehicle lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street, University Avenue, Queen’s Park, Queen’s Park Crescent and Avenue Road.

The RFP will also identify options to retain or reconfigure Toronto bike lanes “where they make sense and do not make gridlock worse,” the province said.