I am deeply worried about…

I am deeply worried about this bill.

There is no "final solution" for how much infrastructure is required for a car-culture to continue; adding (or returning) lanes for cars to occupy is not a long term, medium term, or even short term solution to congestion. Full stop. And everyone knows it.

This bill is not about reducing congestion, it is about scoring political points to bolster an election.

If this bill moves forward, we will be wasting taxpayer money removing cycling infrastructure, instead of investing it in things that will actually help with congestion; providing transportation alternatives like walking, cycling, and public transit.

The argument that only 1.2% of Torontonians ride bicycles is provably false. Within Toronto proper, surveys show numbers as high as 44%. 1.2% is a number from over 10 years ago that included people from Burlington to Ajax, from the lakeshore to Lake Simcoe. Through that incredibly wide expanse, there is nearly no bicycle infrastructure even if people wanted to survive a ride to work or to the Go train or to the local grocery store.

It is a cyclic issue; people don't feel safe riding a bicycle to do day-to-day things like commuting, errands, or going to see friends, because there is no cycling infrastructure. And politicians score points saying no-one is riding so it is a waste of money to invest in cycling infrastructure. But if you actually look at the numbers, you see that when you do invest in infrastructure, deaths go down and ridership goes up.

Of course, this is the "Environmental Registry of Ontario", and none of this has touched on the actual environment. Cars are bad for the environment, full stop. And not just from their tailpipes; the amount of green space that gets destroyed to support a car culture is ghastly.

There is no positive outcome from ripping out existing bike lanes and proactively blocking the creation of new cycling infrastructure, period. We need to invest in the people, not the profits of foreign car companies by paving over every blade of grass to ensure they're they only hope for Ontarioans to get around.