As someone who lives a…

As someone who lives a couple of hours away from any major Ontario city, I absolutely despise the thought of driving in the cities but bike lanes are not the reason why. As a matter of fact, I believe bike lanes are part of the solution. If more people used bikes and transit, there would be less vehicles on the road. Period. I prefer to go park my vehicle and take transit the rest of the way. Sometimes solving the gridlock issue is less about adding capacity but rather encouraging people to use the other options. I grew up in Etobicoke and east Mississauga at a time when we used to go and bike down to lakeshore mostly through a series of parks and then bike downtown, I loathe the idea of doing that today due to all the traffic we may have to encounter. Maybe instead of wasting money trying to rip out these bike lanes, let's use that money to encourage people to use the other modes of transportation. I used to use MiWay to get to Humber College when I lived in Mississauga, it was often faster than taking the freeways by about 10 minutes and I didn't have the stress of driving.

Let's get more transportation options to more rural communities that people are commuting into the GTA from such as Shelburne and Dundalk along highway 10. Highway 10 is full of drivers who drive erratically. They pass on solid yellow lines, going uphill and around curves, not to mention sometimes going 50+km/h over the 80km/h speed limit. The GTR route between Owen Sound and Orangeville had to recently stop taking on people from Shelburne in order to ensure there was enough space for the people the GTR intended to serve, which is the people of Grey County. There's demand for this service but it's difficult to use when it has limited service times.

I currently live in a town (Port Elgin) where I have the luxury of walking to work, but most people around here don't. In fact the major employer of the area once had a bus that ran to the local towns but they removed it simply because people didn't use it. People didn't use because they either didn't know about it or it didn't run often enough, which meant they sometimes had to wait an hour or more, which sucks when you have to pick up your child from school because they are sick. There's also a bike path/trail that leads to that particular employer ironically along an old rail bed that people don't like to use because, get this, you have to cross the highway, sometimes at multiple points which you can be stuck at waiting for awhile due the enormous amount of traffic that is created by all the employees going to or from at shift change. Not too mention the employer's cost of private security who also do traffic enforcement along their roads. This local employer is Bruce Power. A company whose costs get passed on to the people of Ontario who buy the electricity they produce. Imagine if the rails were still there and used for passengers and freight? The thousands of people who commute into this place of employment could easily walk, bike, or even drive to a local train station and be at work much sooner and with less stress and less cost, especially since many around here insist on driving pickup trucks. Especially in the summertime when many people come to this area for vacation, the roads become a mess, arguably gridlocked on highway 21. People driving dangerously, sometimes intoxicated, sometimes just lost, sometimes on paved paths intended on for cyclists and pedestrians. Many people end up speeding and running stop signs on the local side streets simply to avoid congestion on the main thoroughfare. This is not very inviting for someone who would like walk or bike, as a matter of fact, it's discouraging. I can only imagine how much nicer a trip into the GTA would be we could just board a train and vice versa, how nice a trip from the GTA would be to a vacation destination such as Port Elgin/Southampton would be without the stress of driving.

When Port Elgin shuts down highway 21 for the couple days of Pumpkinfest every year, the pedestrian only streets become pleasant to walk on without the worry of traffic.

Not as much maintenance for the roads is also a benefit since there would be less vehicles. Arguably, there would be more rail maintenance but I highly doubt it would be as much as trying to upkeep the roads.
Build more bikes lanes, please. Don't rip them up. Rather, encourage them everywhere! I would like to bike more, but the limited options and shared roads aren't very enticing. Build more bike paths, but separate from the roads. Bikes don't want to mingle with traffic if they don't have to. Create bike paths from town to town. Southampton to Port Elgin is nice to bike between with the exception of crossing the highway. Norway managed to build dedicated, separated from car traffic and paved bike paths through remote communities along much more difficult terrain, why can't we? Create more options to get around and make our roads more efficient and safer by getting more vehicles off the road not by trying to pack more cars in. That way, when we have to go somewhere that cannot be reached by any other mode of transportation, the drive can be safer and the roads safer and more efficient for everyone involved.

Thank you,
Jakub