As a family living downtown,…

As a family living downtown, we rely on walking, transit, bike lanes AND a car to get around.

When the Bloor lanes were fixed and extended westward towards High Park, it was such an amazing way to easily get to work and school (as transit can be unreliable and drivers have gotten quite aggressive).

That there is consideration to remove the few lanes we have is beyond disheartening, and reduces our travel possibilities. Being on a bike also allows us freedom to investigate neighborhoods, visiting local businesses that we normally would not if we were just driving through it.

Driver aggression has gotten so bad, I am now incredibly fearful of my family using bikes when there aren't dedicated, protected lanes. Often this means we just don't go to certain places at all.

I'm also very disheartened and frustrated that despite all the global research that shows bike lanes help reduce gridlock for all road users, anecdotal evidence is being used instead to make such decisions.

As we lose more and more green spaces in the city and province, bike lanes seem to be our final way to avoid polluted cities. Please, please fight to keep them in place.