Study after study has…

Study after study has concluded that the only way to reduce traffic congestion is to provide viable alternatives to driving. Since the installation of bike lanes on major streets, many more Torontonians of all ages have felt safe enough to cycle on our streets. Removing bike lanes will force cyclists into dangerous situations where their life may be at risk.

This government claims that their policies are based on evidence, and yet blatantly ignores the fact that public transportation and bike lanes have a higher throughput of traffic than a lane of single-occupancy vehicles. It is simple geometry that if every person who is now biking in the bike lanes switches to driving a car, congestion will only get worse.

This government consistently makes decisions that favour the convenience of wealthy suburbanites who want to speed dangerously through urban neighbourhoods over the very health and safety of the people living in those communities.

The Bloor Annex BIA has publicly stated that bike lanes on Bloor have actually helped their member businesses. There is further evidence that bike lanes and a more pleasant and safe pedestrian realm bring more customers to shops and restaurants than more parking and more lanes of traffic. Removing these lanes is an expensive way to only make congestion worse in the long term.

It has been clear for many years now that this PC government has a disdain for the City of Toronto and its citizens. I have to wonder if the Minister of Transport has even walked along Bloor St in the last five years to witness how much of a nicer experience the streetscape is since the installation of bike lanes and traffic calming measures. There is a subway line with a daily ridership of 400,000 people per day running underneath the street. Why is this government encouraging people to drive on this and other major transit corridors?