I am confused at why this is…

I am confused at why this is being looked at from a provincial government level. Roads where bike lanes are installed are managed by municipalities and as such should fall to them to make decisions. Furthermore, the proposal to limit and remove bike lanes goes against the research when we speak about traffic and gridlock. A year after instillation, we have seen that bike lanes increase speed on major arteries (such as the Danforth in Toronto). There are more bikes compared with automobilies per household in Toronto, if all the cyclist that use these bike lanes were to drive, gridlock would be much worse. Cyclists are using these bike lanes to get there faster. And studies from Toronto have shown that people are biking more than they previously were and are more likely to bike on roads with bike infrastructure.
When I drive I am happy to see cyclists biking safely in a bike lane. It helps me know where to expect them. We have had a ridiculous number of cyclist deaths in Ontario this year, hearing that the province wants to re-evaluate municipal e streets use of cycle tracks is appalling. Areas where cycling is more prevalent tend to have lower rates of bicycle-related collisions and fatalities, and further more we know from studies from around the world that bike lanes ease congestion, reduce emissions and increase local businesses. Municipalities should be installing more bike lanes, and the province should not be preventing these benefits.