Closing bike lanes will make…

Closing bike lanes will make gridlock worse. You can fit far more people into bike lanes than into cars on roads.

Closing lanes also doesn’t stop people biking, but it will make it far less safe to do so. With rising costs of living in this city many bike because to own a car and to park is not a bearable expense.

Lastly, I would recommend the minister to reconsider his comments that biking is not accessible to everyone. First, accessibility has many definitions including having the socioeconomic resources to access a service. In this regard there are far higher barriers to entry into a car market that make cycling far more accessible. Second, how many people for whom there is an accessibility challenge in cycling would there be any less of a challenge in driving a car? I can’t imagine many - and for those whom it is easier to drive a car, we should be encouraging more cycling and public transit from those who can such that they have a benefit or reduced traffic on the roads.

This bill is awful. Leave control of cities to the municipalities that only have to consider their interests and can tailor policy and rule to best fit the needs of the city, not take this one size fits all parts of the province approach that a provincial bill would create.