Cycling lanes are necessary…

Cycling lanes are necessary for public safety. It’s easier for cars to drive knowing that cyclists are separated from car lanes. Bikers need assurance that a parked car isn’t going to open its doors into them. We already have all sorts of regulations from traffic lights to seatbelts intended to increase road safety. Bike lanes are just another layer of safety.

Biking and driving can and do coexist. In my day-to-day life, I typically ride my bike as an alternative to driving. In doing so, I actually reduce traffic by taking another car off the road and thereby make driving better (I always take roads with bike lanes or side streets where available, so I’m not blocking any cars). I am not campaigning against cars. As a car owner myself, I recognize they are and always will be a necessity. I will be the first to admit that driving in Toronto is frustrating. But in my experience this is due to poor drivers, widespread construction, reserving car parking spaces on almost every major street, having slow large vehicles everywhere, and having generally poor road design across the city. It is not because of bike lanes, which take cars off the road.