This bill is contrary to…

This bill is contrary to climate change goals and the needs of the public. Public safety is paramount and the removal of bicycle lanes is not in line with planning or engineering best practice for transportation public safety. Why are we moving away from a complete streets design to prioritizing vehicular infrastructure when complete streets benefits everyone and this bill only represents one road user?

When planners consider where to put bicycle lanes they are also trying to balance traffic congestion. Bike lanes are not the problem. Cyclists actually remove cars from the road, reducing congestion while increasing road safety. On the other hand, removing bicycle lanes represents a significant safety issue for cyclists who will continue to use this mode of transportation but not have their safety considered. We need to be prioritizing alternate forms of transportation, our corridors are only so wide and it’s short sighted to assume vehicular transportation is the only one that will matter in future.

In addition, municipalities should have the opportunity and ability to set service levels and ask their residents what they want and are willing to pay for. The province should not be mandating the removal of significant infrastructure, those decisions should be in the hands of the municipality and Council. This bill is short sighted and is proposing to destroy infrastructure that’s been built up over the past decade without doing significant consultation to ensure this is the correct decision for municipalities.