I am writing to express my…

I am writing to express my concerns about the proposed Bill 212 which would give the provincial government a ludicrous amount of power over municipalities so that they could have final say on the installation of bike lanes in any community in the province.

Not only is this a flagrant over-reach of the provincial goverment's purview in these matters, and also an obvious distraction from the more pressing matters in our province, even if it were being proposed with the best of intentions it would be a terrible idea.

The best way to get Ontarians where they need to go in most urban settings is to encourage them to get OUT of their cars and use public transit, ride shares, bicycling, or walking. If every Ontarian drove everywhere we need to go, traffic would be at a standstill and accidents and deaths would rise regardless of how many lanes were dedicated to cars -- this is true even in some more rural areas, but is especially true in cities and is definitely true in Toronto, where most of the vocal supporters of this from your government seem to live.

The provincial government could choose to spend their time, resources, and focus on bettering the quality of life for all Ontarians by fixing the broken healthcare system, looking into housing costs, building standards, and availability. If they wanted to fix specifically the way that Ontarians move around urban areas, they could easily focus on their own half-finished and half-funded public transit initiatives.

Premier Ford himself could avoid needing to sit in traffic if the Eglinton Crosstown were completed.

Leave the bike lanes alone, let municipalities focus on their own traffic management needs, and instead focus your energy on actual problems rather than insulting the intelligence of your constituents by parading around this non-problem.