Dear Folks who are supposed…

Dear Folks who are supposed to represent the People,

Please listen to what I have to say.

I own a car.

I also own a bicycle.

I drive my car less than 1/10 of the kilometres that I ride on my bicycle. Why? Because biking has so many benefits (healthy, economical, climate friendly, exciting and engaging) and driving a car is literally the opposite.

I ride my bike year round. Did you hear me? I ride my bike year round! I have friends who ride bikes year round! And I see other people riding bikes year round!

It is completely false to say the Canadian winter is so long and impractical that no one rides their bikes.

Removing bike lanes, hindering municipalities from building bike lanes and requiring municipalities to provide all documentation before building bike lanes directly affects me! I’m a Canadian citizen living in southern Ontario! How dare you go backwards in an evolving province?!

Bike lanes do not slow down traffic.
Vehicles slow down traffic.
Too many vehicles slow down traffic!

Removing bike lanes will do two things:
1- Slow down traffic because cyclists will be riding their bikes in the car lane BECAUSE YOU REMOVED THE BIKE LANE
2- Slow down traffic because instead of you providing alternative modes of transportation, you are forcing the growing population to use cars for transportation and the roads will get fuller!!!

As you can see, removing bike lanes does NOT speed up traffic!!

Please please PLEASE focus on building an effective and connected cycling network. People will use it! Car drivers, not all but some, will opt to ride their bikes. Every person riding a bike means one less car on the road! THIS will remove excess cars from the road and will speed up car traffic!

Do you realize how much space a car wastes per human?? Cyclists take a fraction of the space.
AND costs a fraction of your budget to build safe and connected infrastructure (compared to infrastructure for cars)!

More bike lanes are needed for my generation and generations to follow.

Build an effective and connected cycling network and your roads will have less car traffic and less gridlock. Trust me. Look at Montreal (they also have winter!!) , look at Amsterdam, Copenhagen and even Edmonton who actually understand basic development needs and are finally planning an investment in a complete cycling network.

It’s not rocket science. Build more bike lanes. Not less.

Yours truly,
A year round cyclist who will not stop cycling just because you remove bike lanes.

Ps, have fun driving slowly behind me while I’m biking because you took away my bike lane!