Yes, congestion in Toronto…

Yes, congestion in Toronto really is at a crisis point. A shared frustration about traffic might be the only thing that unites downtown Torontonians, 905ers, and everyone in between. But this legislation is incredibly foolish, and will only serve to make congestion worse by holding people back from shifting away from car-dependency.
This move concentrate power in the MTO so that Queen's Park can choke off new bike lanes, ostensibly as a tactic to tame congestion, offers no solutions to the problem at hand. Setting aside the many public health, affordability, economic, and climate benefits of active mobility infrastructure; and setting aside the gaslighting, power-grabbing, and politically divisive strategy behind the government's agenda and messaging on this issue; the ultimate impact of this policy is to make congestion worse.
That’s because, time and time again, in cities all over the world, the only thing that has ever led to long-term improvements in urban car congestion is giving people viable alternatives to cars. That's not up for debate. That's just how traffic works. Again, I'm talking about car congestion. In order to get cars moving, we need to shift people to other, more efficient modes. Indeed, the simplification of our roads to prioritize one mode — the car — over all others is what got us into this mess in the first place. More of that same approach will only entrench the dynamics of the current crisis.
We could — and should — have a deep, academic, evidence-based discussion about things like induced demand and network effects — two concepts that are critical to understanding how our infrastructure can actually get people moving — but the simpler point is this: in a crisis, you don't take options off the table, and you don't limit your toolbox.
And bike infrastructure is a really great tool! Depending on the study, a bike lane have been consistently shown to move anywhere from 4 to 12 times as many people per hour as a car lane, while taking up half as much of the road’s cross-section. With such limited space to work with on any given downtown street, we simply can’t afford not to take advantage of that level of performance. And because we’re focusing on downtown areas, with speed limits in the 30-40 km/h range, bikes tend to move just about as fast as cars — especially after accounting for time spent waiting at red lights, when everyone moves at the exact same speed. The existing bike lanes that this bill targets are the only reason I am able to move through downtown with any speed, and breaking away from car dependency is the only reason I am able to afford the life I live.
Are bike lanes perfect? No. Are they effective in every context? Certainly not. The thorough debunking of the myth that bike lanes cause the kind of congestion we’re seeing in downtown Toronto has revealed the exact opposite: in urban settings, bike lanes eat congestion for lunch. And yet, this bill offers no solutions to a process the government claims is 'broken'. It only promises to slow down the growth of our cycling network by forcing projects to clear one more hurdle: provincial approval.
So, what might we do instead to break this soul-crushing pattern of gridlock?
How about, instead of taking away a tool, we unlock a new tool? Or better yet, get more use out of a tool we already use? In a recent episode of The Agenda all about the crisis at hand, the panel expressed unanimous support for the expanded use of automated enforcement to improve traffic flow immediately by enforcing existing rules — because even with fines for infractions like ‘blocking the box’ rising to $450-500, the deterrent effect is practically zero if it's not enforced consistently. The consensus was that, if we could prevent a handful of bad drivers from spoiling the commute for everybody, we could do a lot of good in a short amount of time.
Anybody who’s ever sat stationary through a whole green light wishing swift retribution on the nimrod who was too anxious to follow the basic rules of the road can surely support sending that guy a ticket in the mail. So, why can't we make that happen? Because automated enforcement is heavily restricted by — guess who! — the Province. And the Province holds all the power to un-restrict it.
If this government were actually interested in improving the flow of traffic, they would be bringing solutions like expansion of automated enforcement to the table, instead of taking away good (if imperfect) solutions like bike lanes. Given their unapologetically pro-car (and, by extension, pro-congestion) track record, I'm not optimistic they will change their tack. But maybe, just maybe, some of those voters from the 905 stuck in gridlock, at intersections blocked by cross-traffic, on roads that don't even have bike lanes, might see through the rhetoric, see the lack of progress, and take their frustrations to the ballot box. One can only hope.