I live near the Yonge St…

I live near the Yonge St bike lanes. When these were installed, there was public meeting where the proposal was outlined --the work the city planners had done in making the proposal was extensive. They looked at traffic patterns on parallel streets---Avenue Road and Mount Pleasant. They considered times for emergency vehicles, they provided for parking so that the stores along Yonge from Bloor to Heath could get shoppers back to the area. They also provided for some Cafe Toronto areas. It was researched carefully and explained to people in the area. They had a trial for about year and a half and then made them permanent. We are a neighbourhood and we enjoy our bike paths the way they are working. We don't want traffic racing through our neighbourhood (what Doug Ford calls congestion ) People wanting to go north south "quickly" can do so on the two other major arteries or better yet by subway. There are many walkers on Yonge Street and the four lanes is a safety concern especially for seniors in the area. For Doug Ford to just high handedly say they must go based on his "gut" goes against the careful planning done when these were installed . It is an abuse of power . We want our city departments making decisions not Ford and his departments. They should be fixing health care, education, long term care and leave our city alone. (stay in YOUR lane) We elect our city leaders to manage our city---let them. Yonge street has the subway so nobody has to drive downtown . Why feed the congestion further south? What are all these cars going to do once they get to Bloor----add to the congestion further south. The message should be take the subway , walk, or bike. You can walk from Davisville to Bloor in half an hour. You can bike downtown quickly. How are we going to meet our environment targets when we keep catering to the car at the expense of alternatives and neighbourhoods. Great cities have figured this out. Going back is the wrong message especially when it is based on "fixing" congestion when there is no proof of this---just a political "gut" over reaction. We need to pay attention to people that studied this carefully and made a decision based on that research not on someone who thinks this is politically popular . It is not.