It is almost impossible to…

It is almost impossible to capture all the issues with removing bike lanes or preventing municipalities from making their own decisions about city planning in this comment. But I will outline some of the more obvious concerns below.

How exactly is this legislation supposed to increase traffic flow? Are bikes going to disappear and no longer be used as transportation? People will continue to use bikes to get around, only now cyclists will be in a lane of live traffic, slowing cars down, creating choke points and getting riders killed. Congestion is not being dealt with, only risk to cyclists is being increased. There are several roads without bike lanes that have heavy traffic, what does this legislation do to relieve that congestion? In fact the QEW/Gardiner, 403 and 401 don't have bike lanes and all these roads are parking lots for large portions of the day. Removing bike lanes to help traffic reach these highways doesn't seem to work towards reducing gridlock faced by most drivers.

There is often a lane of traffic occupied by cars that are parked, how are non-moving vehicles blocking a lane of traffic not the largest problem for lane availability and congestion? Bike lanes move people and reduce congestion, parked cars do neither.

What are the climate implications of this legislation? If it successfully eliminates cyclists who now have to drive, there will be increased congestion (no matter how many lanes are available) as well as increases to carbon dioxide emissions. Is this viewed as a positive by this government? If not, what steps are being taken to mitigate the increases to pollution?

What are the impacts to small businesses? Bike shops are found all over the province, often independently owned by small business people. Decreased demand of bikes will follow the removal of safe cycling infrastructure. Coffee shops, restaurants and other shops will also feel the pinch when ability to travel from neighbourhood to neighbourhood is reduced for those who don't have access to cars or don't want to sit in traffic and have to search for parking spots upon arrival.

With a ministry of Red Tape Reduction I am sure you are aware the costs (opportunity as well financial) of adding layers of approvals to municipalities trying to deal with their unique situations and desires.

This legislation seems punitive to a specific group and does nothing to solve any problems. Please let us join the modern world that is no longer 100% car dependent.