Hello, I fully support the…

Hello,

I fully support the removal of the bike lanes between Keele St. And Islington Ave.

I’ve lived in Bloor West Village for 30 years, 800 metres from the Runnymede Subway Station. I walk or drive along Bloor St daily. Since the bike lanes were installed, I have not seen an increase in cycling. I would use the word “rarely” to describe the frequency of seeing a single bike on either side of the road.

There are alternate routes that the rarely seen cyclist could take between Keele and Islington that does not involve Bloor St. One short block north on Keele enables travelling West through pretty tree lined neighbourhoods. Bike lanes wouldn’t be required on these side streets because there aren’t enough cyclists to warrant it.

I am not opposed to bike lanes when they are used by many, instead of a few. For example, they make sense in areas of the City where many people are commuting to their jobs via bike. That isn’t the case in Bloor West as it’s too far to commute downtown via bike, especially in our often inclement weather. I believe there are better ways to have spent the money that was spent on installing these, for example, putting it towards making it free to ride the TTC to encourage more use of that. I don’t agree that the “build it and they will come” theory is appropriate for every neighbourhood and shame on the City for saying there was appropriate consultation before installing them.