I am an urban planner and…

I am an urban planner and municipal lawyer who works and lives in Toronto. I regularly interact with both city and provincial policy frameworks and administrative branches in my daily work. I have great respect for both local and provincial autonomy and authority. Also, I generally align with the Conservative Party and own an SUV which I drive often enough.

That all said: the issue of bike lanes in any municipality should be controlled by the governing local government, period. Interjection of provincial authority on what is entirely a local issue is completely unfounded. Stay out of local decision making. The PC’s should be the party of small government, not governmental overreach.

I happened to have written my Masters thesis up at York University on the history of urban development and transportation infrastructure in the GTA. That was 20 years ago and traffic on the Allan was brutal even back then.

Bottom line: study after study has shown bike lanes do not increase traffic. What they do is increase bicycle ridership, which the city desperately needs, along with a massive focus on public transit. More cars on more roads is not the solution to an epidemic.

So rather than impose arbitrary control over an issue that we have elected local officials to act on, perhaps the province could instead consider a congestion tax for the drivers entering urban centers at no cost? That approach would actually reduce traffic, as opposed to just blaming bike lanes because you see them next to you!

Please, do better!! Our cities need cycling infrastructure to thrive. Look at every significant leading city and you will see how Toronto leaves behind all of: Tokyo, London, Paris, New York, etc. Our cycling infrastructure is still embarrassing in comparison, so the attempt to obstruct future improvements is borderline criminal