I strongly object to the…

I strongly object to the proposed plan to remove existing bike lanes on Toronto and to the proposed plan to force municipalities to seek provincial approval in order to install new bikes lanes in place of a lane of traffic.

There is sufficient research to prove that more lanes (and indeed more roads) do not lead to less traffic. There is a brief period immediately after the change that shows improvement in travel times, but this result is not permanent and in fact backfires in the long term, because more lanes means more cars on the road, and more cars on the road means more traffic. Instead, what the government needs to do is find ways to reduce our reliance on personal vehicles overall. Cycling and public transit require more investment, not less.

Traffic aside, there are other reasons this is a bad idea. One, the lanes that the government wishes to remove have been here long enough that cyclists and drivers have become accustomed to them. Removing them means removing a safe means for cyclists to travel on these routes. Drivers will have to be more attentive to cyclists sharing the vehicle lane instead of a dedicated bike lane. Toronto has had a number of serious and fatal collisions between vehicles and cyclists in this year alone; removing a dedicated bike lane will only make this problem worse. At the end of the day, what is more important to the Ontario government: traffic or people's lives?

Second, we are in a climate emergency. I urge the provincial government to remember this fact and to act for the long term, not the short. Yes, removing a bike lane now may speed up traffic but ultimately it will lead to more cars on the road and more pollution and more damage to the climate. The government should seek long-term benefits, not short-term benefits with long-term harms. I urge the government to plan for future generations, and again to ask itself what is more important: a temporarily faster commute or a liveable planet for our children and grandchildren?

Thank you for the opportunity to share my comment. I hope the government will take its constituents' opinions into consideration on this matter.