In my humble opinion, this…

In my humble opinion, this new proposal is a big mistake for many, MANY reasons.

Safety - Bike lanes improve safety for pedestrians and those who need/choose to bike - Bike lanes provide a safe buffer between vehicle lanes and the sidewalk, which improves safety and comfort for anyone walking (children, seniors, and everyone else).

Bike lanes actually improve safety for motorists - Many areas (especially smaller towns) have excessive amounts of road space. It's a proven fact that as lanes/roads get wider, traffic speeds increase. Where there is excessive space on the road the road space should be reduced to calm driving behaviours. This improves safety for all users, including motorists. Prioritizing vehicle speeds and space over safety will result in more dangerous collisions, car crashes, fatalities, all while increasing congestion.

Safety - There is (and will continue to be) an increase in other active modes, which can be accommodated in bike lanes - Scooters, skateboards, etc., are used in bike lanes. By limiting the number of bike lanes, the province would also be indirectly forcing these users to either be on the road or sidewalks (most likely they would choose sidewalks, which increases the risks to pedestrians).

Equity - Favouring vehicle lanes over other modes of transportation leaves some people with little or no transportation at all - kids, young teenagers, newcomers to Canada (who don't have licenses yet), people who can't afford cars/gas, and anyone who has medical issues which makes them unable to drive are more affected than others.

Health / Safety - Vehicle lanes should NOT be the priority - Active modes (cycling, skateboards, scooters, walking, etc.) should be the priority as they keep people healthy and reduce the risk of fatal or major injury collisions.

Duplication - The policy would overstep boundaries - Many of the larger municipalities already have frameworks for decision-making, including multimodal Level of Service guidelines. There are already frameworks in place for making informed, well-thought-out decisions at the municipal level, so why would the province feel a need to overrule these existing policies?

Local context - The decision-makers would have little to no knowledge of local context - The policy seems to be written specifically for the GTA, not for other regions of the province. There are many factors to consider when making these high-level decisions, and it seems like an awful idea to have some bureaucrat in the GTA decide what is best for other municipalities that they may have never even stepped foot in.

Cost Duplication - The policy would be costly - Taxpayers are already paying for engineering studies, etc. at the municipal level. Why should we also be paying for someone at the provincial level (living in the GTA) to review the same engineering studies that municipal engineers are already reviewing?

Economy - The policy would impact the economy - Adding barriers to construction would slow or halt many municipal construction projects. If the province were to disallow safety improvements such as these, that would be millions of dollars of lost opportunity for the engineering/design and construction industries.

Cycling convenience - Moving bike lanes to side streets is not the answer - There are several reasons for this (many destinations are on the main streets, often main streets are the more direct/less complicated path, often main streets are longer than side streets, often these side streets do not have traffic signals when they cross main roads, etc.).

Congestion/Safety - Some cyclists will just move to the general traffic lanes if there aren't bike lanes - I can't see why the premier would think that it's a bad idea to have safe facilities for cyclists, rather than have them in the general traffic lane. If I were cycling and my choices were the general traffic lanes of the main street or a circuitous route along a side street, I would choose the general traffic lane.

Congestion - Other cyclists will choose to drive instead of biking/skateboarding/scootering - Bike lanes are added to streets to help offer an alternative to driving. In some cases, if a cyclist chooses to bike to their destination, that's one less car on the road. Reducing the number of bike lanes (or making them inconveniently located on side streets), would increase the number of cars, which would increase congestion, and subsequently increase response times for emergency vehicles.

Optics - The policy would be regressive and would put Ontario on the map for being a car-dependent bureaucracy rather than being progressive and forward-thinking - Many jurisdictions are working on their vision zero policies and aiming to make transportation more equitable, accessible and safer. This policy would be entirely backwards. We should be making things better, not worse.