Like many Torontonians I…

Like many Torontonians I ride a bike around the city. It is the fastest way to get around, not to mention the healthiest and most environmentally friendly form of transportation. But biking does come at some personal risk. I was thrilled when the bike lanes were added to the major streets in the city. It made me safer and it encouraged me to use a bike rather than take my car.

Removing bike lanes will, of course, have the opposite effect— it will discourage me from taking a bike and it will put me at more risk.

Why is this happening? It sounds like it is an attempt to reduce gridlock in the city. But is that really going to solve the problem? Isn’t the real issue that the population of Toronto has expanded to a point that it is straining the infrastructure of the city?

This quote from the Globe and Mail article (linked below) says it all:

“To say giving more space to cars can solve congestion, that just does not work. That is world-is-flat stuff,” said Shoshanna Saxe, an associate professor at the University of Toronto in the department of civil and mineral engineering, who studies sustainable infrastructure. “The consensus is that bike lanes are a critical tool for reducing congestion and increasing mobility. So, no, they don’t cause congestion. Cars cause congestion.”

So, by removing bike lanes, the city is actually increasing congestion. This seems like a foolish, not to mention costly, proposal.

Now, to vent my frustration for a moment: this is another example of the Ford government making an ill-informed choice for purely political reasons. This is not a seriously considered proposal. It is not a real attempt to fix the problem of congestion in the city. It’s just more populist showmanship, which unfortunately is an effective political tool, but really solves nothing for the people who live here.