Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford vows to remove Scarborough's red bus lanes

Why it matters

Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford announced Wednesday morning (Oct. 7) a transit pledge: if elected mayor, he would return 12 kilometres of Scarborough's red priority bus lanes to general traffic to ease gridlock. It is one of the most-watched transit promises of the mayoral race; it is a candidate pledge, not current city policy.

Under his plan, the red bus lanes on Kennedy Road and Midland Road would be removed immediately and turned over to general traffic, while those on Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue would be converted to high-occupancy vehicle lanes. The lanes on Eglinton Avenue East would be kept — Bradford said it carries more buses than any other Scarborough road.

Toronto began installing red priority bus lanes in 2020 and has expanded the network since; driving in one carries a $110 fine plus three demerit points. Bradford said the lanes were meant as a temporary measure pending the Eglinton East LRT, but the project has not been placed on the province's priority list (price tag $4.65 billion), so the promised alternative never materialized.

Bradford also pledged to make the Eglinton East LRT his top transit priority if elected. Incumbent Mayor Olivia Chow tabled a council motion in April to make the LRT the city's top unfunded transit priority and to call on Ottawa and Queen's Park to each fund a third of the cost.