This comment is specifically…

This comment is specifically about the province's desire to remove bike lanes in Toronto.

Bike lanes reduce fatalities. Remove them, and more Ontarians die.

Removing bike lanes won't make commutes any faster - the outside lane on pretty much every street in Toronto is used for parking. People can't drive through parked cars. Want to create an additional driving lane? Ban on-street parking on major streets.

If y'all were actually serious about reducing gridlock, you'd be expanding cycling infrastructure, not removing it. More people choosing bikes to get around means fewer cars on the roads. More people choose to ride a bike when there is the infrastructure to safely ride them.

As for Ford's whole, "bike lanes should be on side streets" shtick, side streets have only one lane in each direction. There's no space to add bike lanes to them. (And no, sharrows aren't the same as bike lanes.) All of the bike racks are on major streets, not side streets.

I thought Conservatives were supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. But here you are, planning to waste taxpayer money to remove things that are benefitting Torontonians. Whose budget will the removal come out of - Toronto's, or Ontario's? Are you planning to give Toronto back the money that it paid to install them? Will the province be paying to build new ones on side streets? Businesses saw an increase in customers after bike lanes were installed. Is Ontario planning to reimburse businesses for the sales that will be lost by removing them?

The fact that three bike lanes have been slated for removal before there are any criteria for deciding whether or not a bike lane should be removed makes it pretty obvious that this is just another one of Ford's attempts to punish Toronto for rejecting him. Safety for cyclists needs to come before stroking Ford's ego. Leave the bike lanes alone, and stop trying to micromanage municipalities.