I am a resident of Oakville,…

I am a resident of Oakville, ON and I wish to state my outright objection to this proposal. Bike lanes objectively, empirically, do not create additional traffic congestion. Nor does adding more car lanes actually ease traffic congestion, perhaps beyond a year or two, thanks to induced demand. I am a young disabled person who cannot drive for medical reasons - my ebike is my freedom. But not when I'm placed in danger with a lack of safe bike infrastructure. It is incredibly taxing to me to have to pay a considerable sum for a cab to reach a location that I cannot get to on the bus, could not walk to, but could bike to IF IT WERE SAFE. But it isn't. Side streets are simply not a solution - they're convoluted and indirect. In many suburbs, side streets are crescents that don't go anywhere - main roads are the ONLY OPTION. In Oakville we have many walking paths which are mixed use which can be an option, but similarly they are not straightforward to navigate and rarely have curb cuts or signals where you have to cross the road to continue on the trail. Additionally, side streets are generally too narrow to accommodate bike lanes even if the actual route of the roads wasn't an issue, which it is. As a taxpayer, I strongly object to my tax dollars being used to remove infrastructure that was already paid for in ways that actively endanger me as a citizen and restrict my freedom of movement. Some trips need to be made in a car, and always will - but many DON'T, or only need to be now because of design choices in our communities. The absolute best way to reduce gridlock is to make it incredibly easy and convenient for as many trips as reasonably possible to be made without a car. Drivers should support bike lanes - every new cyclist is one less car they have to compete with on the road. And approaching the problem from a diversion perspective is incredibly empowering and freeing for those of us who can't drive, particularly as car-dependent community design is a massive barrier to employment for people like me. I ask that you strongly reconsider this proposal, which uses taxpayer money to restrict citizens' freedom of movement and increase the danger they face when traveling, with absolutely no basis in empirical evidence that it will actually achieve the supposed objective.