I urge the provincial…

I urge the provincial government to not pass Bill 60, as it is antithetical to what it says it is trying to achieve. This bill is promising to fight delays, when the scientific literature is clear; the only way to reduce traffic congestion is to provide viable alternatives to driving, which gets cars off the road. People are more likely to take public transit that is reliable, fast, and convenient (Chakrabarti, 2017). Public transportation can also reduce traffic congestion, as Adler et al. (2021) found that a 10% decrease in public transit supply was correlated with a 1.6% increase in travel time for drivers during morning peak hours in Rome. Public transit is fast and reliable when it has a dedicated right of way, such as bus-only lanes (Wessel & Widener, 2017).

The presence of cycling infrastructure such as bike lanes and bike shares reduce traffic congestion. The availability of bike share in a neighborhood reduces traffic congestion in that neighborhood by 4% (Hamilton & Wichman, 2018). High prevalence of bike lanes in cities also create safer cities for all road users, including drivers (Marshall & Ferenchak, 2019).

This Bill will make it harder for municipalities to reduce traffic and create safer streets. I strongly suggest that the Ontario government reconsider this appalling, anti-science, backwards Bill. Instead Ontario should be building safe bike infrastructure, fast and efficient public transit infrastructure.

References
Adler, M. W., Liberini, F., Russo, A., & Ommeren, J. N. V. (2021). The congestion relief benefit of public transit: Evidence from Rome. Journal of Economic Geography, 21(3), 397–431. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbaa037

Chakrabarti, S. (2017). How can public transit get people out of their cars? An analysis of transit mode choice for commute trips in Los Angeles. Transport Policy, 54, 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2016.11.005

Hamilton, T. L., & Wichman, C. J. (2018). Bicycle infrastructure and traffic congestion: Evidence from DC’s Capital Bikeshare. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 87, 72–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2017.03.007

Marshall, W. E., & Ferenchak, N. N. (2019). Why cities with high bicycling rates are safer for all road users. Journal of Transport & Health, 13, 100539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.03.004

Wessel, N., & Widener, M. J. (2017). Discovering the space–time dimensions of schedule padding and delay from GTFS and real-time transit data. Journal of Geographical Systems, 19(1), 93–107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-016-0244-8