I'm a lifelong Torontonian…

I'm a lifelong Torontonian who has lived in various parts of the city. I commute almost every day using practically every mode of transportation: walking, biking, driving, and taking the TTC. For several years I would commute by bicycle to school, work, and social functions. I decided to stop cycling regularly several years ago after too many minor accidents and dangerous close calls involving motor vehicles on the road. Despite knowing it was good for the environment, a source of exercise, and an efficient way to get where I was going, I decided the city infrastructure was simply too poor to continue biking regularly and still feel safe.

Then came the new additions to biking infrastructure across the city over the past several years, in particular the Bloor bike lanes. Protected, consistent infrastructure across large parts of the city created a night and day difference. In the past I never would have considered cycling from my home in the Little Portugal area to visit my brother at Main and Danforth. Suddenly, there was access to the equivalent of a bike highway, where I could safely and quickly ride across the city. It felt like at last Toronto was entering into a new, modern, and more thoughtful era.

Now, of course, after years of planning, consideration, review, and construction, this provincial government wants to rip it all up in a short-sighted bid to appease a minority of drivers. Congestion is caused by cars! If you want less traffic you need less cars on the road. The answer to that is viable alternatives. No major city in the world has been able to solve its traffic problems by adding more lanes. I believe that removing the bike lanes on Bloor, Yonge, and University would be a shameful use of our resources with no foreseeable long-term benefit. This plan would actively make our city a worse place to live and I am 100% against it.