Allow me to just state at…

Allow me to just state at the upfront that I am completely on board with reducing gridlock and saving people time. It’s a crying shame how much of our short lives are wasted behind the wheel of a car, on the seat of a bus, or at the handlebars of a bicycle. I think that every person in this great province we call home deserves their hard earned time, and with a little bit of extra safety we can make sure they live long enough to enjoy it.

Before the installation of the University Ave bike lanes, I was twice hit by drivers on the road. I’m not one of those kitted out, spandex covered, Tour De France style cyclists you see around the city. I’m much more comfortable in a work jacket and jeans. That’s all to say that it wasn’t any aggressive or showy biking on my part that got me hit, it was simple human error by the drivers of each car. I don’t fault them for it, we all get distracted, some of us have worse reflexes than others, and it’s only human to make mistakes. But I am incredibly lucky to have escaped alive, and relatively uninjured. My work jacket saved my skin, literally. Some people aren’t that lucky, and it’s those people that my heart goes out to. Bike lanes can, and do, keep cyclists out of traffic, leaving roads clear and obstruction free.

I think the real problem isn’t between drivers and people on bikes. It’s between hardworking people trying to get from point A to point B and freeloaders who treat our public arterial roads like a parking lot. Look out on Bloor, College, and Dundas Street on any given day and you’ll see good, honest drivers and cyclists stuck behind lazy good-for-nothings who leave their parked cars empty on the side of the road. Sometimes they don’t even properly park, and instead just leave their hazards on in traffic like they’re “park anywhere” buttons. Frankly, it’s a disgrace. Parking belongs on side streets, in parking lots, and in your driveway at home, not on arterial roads. If we really want to speed up traffic and reduce gridlock, why aren’t we taking away these so called “lazy lanes” full of parked cars that don’t even move?

Take away a bike lane and cars get stuck behind cyclists that now have to share the road. I don’t have to bore you with statistics—you already know the figures—that’s just common sense. Not to mention the lives lost in collisions, and the drivers behind bars when that happens. Take away street parking on arterials however, and you’ve successfully opened up a whole new lane of traffic for free. Remove the “lazy lanes” and you can get this province moving again.

Thank you for your time.