It should not be within the…

It should not be within the authority of the provincial minister of transportation or the ministry of transportation to make decisions about municipal road use planning, including decisions about whether and where a municipality wants to build a bike lane.

I pay municipal property taxes to my local city government and those taxes fund municipal roads, bike lanes and sidewalks. As such decisions about how those funds are allocated and how those projects are planned and implemented should be made by my locally-elected municipal councilors and mayor.

The minister of transportation has no role in deciding whether a pot hole in front of my house gets fixed, whether a sidewalk gets build or where a bus stop is located. Likewise they should not have a role in determining whether the road is redesigned to add a bike lane to enable safer travel by cyclists.

For an environmental perspective, we know that bike lanes do not cause traffic. Cars cause traffic. The best way to address issues of gridlock is to create alternative transportation options for people to get where they need to go. That includes trains, public transit, improved pedestrian facilities and bike lanes. The better the infrastructure for cyclists, the more people who will ride, especially with the growth in e-bikes and scooters.

If I choose to get to work by bike, which I do year-round in Ottawa, that means I am not driving my car, burning fuel, taking up space on the road and in parking lot, and generally adding to traffic volume. This reduces gridlock for other drivers. As a bonus I get some physical activity in my day and am a healthier person than I would be if I drove 3kms to work every day.

This provision in Bill 212 will not reduce gridlock and will not save time. It is an inappropriate overreach of ministerial authority into municipal planning decisions and is politicizing local road use decisions.