Toronto continues to grow…

Toronto continues to grow. There is no foreseeable time when it's population will be smaller than it is today. Similarly as bad as traffic is in the city today, it will never be better. Barring an aggressive change in the status quo like a congestion charge, which seems to be considered untenable, there will be more cars every year henceforth. More traffic. More gridlock. Ripping up a few bike lanes at taxpayer expense might provide some brief relief, but we know we will be back here again - likely within less than 5 years.

Against this backdrop we know that it is necessary to enable more safe ways to travel in and around the city beyond the car, and that includes cycling routes that are safe and direct. Ignoring for a second the fact that the Province has as one of its top issues interfering with municipal governments on where they can put cycling infrastructure, if there is really such a strong intent to improve traffic why stop at cycling? Ban on street parking on major avenues as well. This takes up as much if not more space than the cycle tracks on these same streets and causes congestion each time someone needs to reverse into one instead of parking in a Green P of which there are many along routes like Bloor (which is also directly above a subway line).

If the province is serious about managing congestion in Toronto as the city continues to grow, then the focus should be on figuring out how to get more trips happening on alternate modes of transport (train, bus, subway, bike) not on how to remove those alternatives.