After years of close calls with unruly drivers, streets with no bike lanes and tending to friends injured in collisions, Melanie Ng was optimistic that cycling in Toronto was getting easier.

Toronto’s bike lanes had undergone a significant growth spurt since the pandemic, carving out safer spaces for cyclists.

“The city was finally making strides,” Ms. Ng, a doctoral student in history, said after cycling onto the leafy downtown campus of the University of Toronto.

Then came the backlash.

Some of the most popular bike lanes were making Toronto’s notorious traffic worse, according to the provincial government. So Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, passed a law to rip out 14 miles of the lanes from three major streets that serve the core of the city.

Toronto’s mayor, Olivia Chow, arrived for her first day in office two years ago riding a bike. She was not pleased with the law, arguing that the city had sole discretion to decide street rules.

Ms. Chow did not respond to a request to comment. But in public remarks, she has since softened her tone, suggesting it was possible to have a “win-win solution” by relocating some bike lanes or keeping them in place while adding more driving lanes.