Putting bypass highways as a…

Putting bypass highways as a priority form of infrastructure planning is the absolute wrong path to choose in attempting to alleviate vehicular gridlock. Highway 401 was constructed as a bypass highway through Toronto in the mid 20th century. Then highway 407 was built as a bypass to highway 401 in the early 21st century. Now the planned Highway 413 will be a bypass to both roads? It has been consistently proven that the 'one more lane' (or in this situation 'one more highway) is not effective in reducing road congestion. If there is any excess capacity in our roads and highways, our vehicular dependent society will overload it until it is not efficient anymore. In addition relying on private vehicular transportation is the absolute least efficient way to transport people from.one point to another. Consider the space that a single vehicle takes up on the road, and compare it to the carrying capacity of a bus. Even assuming there is more than one person travelling in a car at a time, a bus or train that is at 50% capacity far exceeds the effectiveness for transporting people. If the Premier and elected members of the Conservative Party who are blaming the traffic issues while driving in the GTA only need to look at themselves for being a part of traffic they so despise. If there were feasible mass transit options for people to commute in and out of the GTA along the Highway 401 corridor, people would make the choice to take a bus or train! This will reduce the amount of vehicular traffic on the highways which improves the strain on the highway for people who need to use those roads.

In addition, the details in the bill that will provide the Minister of Transportation powers to reject municipally proposed bike lanes when they are proposed to replace a vehicular lane is dangerous to vulnerable road users and will be a financial strain on the taxpayers in Ontario.

Firstly, the Ford government prides themselves on being "open for business". This part of bill 212 creates more red tape for hundreds or thousands of active and potential infrastructure projects in the Province of Ontario. Creating additional bureaucracy for construction through the provincial approval of municipal affairs will stop municipal infrastructure projects dead in their tracks, negatively impacting jobs provided by the construction of these infrastructure projects. As a civil engineer in Ontario, I am well aware of how ineffective the provincial government is when it comes to obtaining approvals on development and infrastructure projects, and there is no reason to think there would be any changes with this new bill.

I think the proposed sections of the bill in relation to the removal is an absolute ghastly waste of municipal and provincial tax payers money. Why remove a piece of valuable infrastructure that was recently implemented and is positively impacting traffic congestion? The estimated 48 million dollars to remove the existing bike lanes in Toronto is an absolutely immature way to spend taxpayers hard earned money. That is also not to include the municipal funds that were used to recently construct the infrastructure. Also, not to mention the negative impacts to traffic gridlock from the deconstruction of recently implemented road infrastructure will cause the exact opposite of what this bill is proposing to solve in the first place.

Not only will the proposed changes in this bill not reduce gridlock, or save people time, they will also be a heavy burden on the taxpayers and make roads more dangerous and ineffective.