I think the proposal to…

I am a Torontonian who both takes the car and subway for commutes in and across the city, and I enjoy biking recreationally, but lack the infrastructure around my area to feel comfortable or safe being able to do so, even for short trips.

I think the proposal to remove some of the few safe and long bike routes in this city while making new ones much more difficult to build is both shortsighted, and undermines it's own purpose in the long term by restricting the potential for future urban developments that could make this city more safe, efficient, and freely traversable.

I also believe that to push a proposal to remove bike lanes by laser focusing on the areas they are perceived to have the most negative effect, and then pointing to total usage statistics across a city where, as a whole, bike infrastructure is sparse, inconsistent, and incomplete, is disingenuous at best.

The idea that few Torontonians will be negatively affected by the removal of the bike lanes both minimizes the still impressive number of people who do still consistently commute by bike lane despite the lack of bike lane coverage, and entirely dismisses the concept that ridership is proportional to the perceived safety and convenience of biking in the first place.

Bike infrastructure takes up far less space than car infrastructure does, and can accommodate far more commuters at one time in any given space. Every person that could drive but decides it would be more safe and convenient to bike there instead would dramatically reduce traffic, free up exponentially more space for the people who need to drive, save bike commuters money in car maintenance and gas, save drivers money by reducing traffic, save taxpayer dollars in road maintenance, promote local businesses by making them more accessible than just to the few people who can park their cars near it, improve their physical and mental health, and literally save lives.

So I struggle to understand why with so little actual bike lane coverage in this city, that destroying what there is would have much of a benefit for commuters at all. I personally think that this bill focuses too closely on such a small factor that affects traffic, while doing little to nothing to actually address the larger urban design and traffic issues that affect far more than just the three routes with bike lanes named in this bill.

I believe our urban planners and designers could use the time they would need to spend reviewing every single bike lane in this city more productively in researching and creating more effective proposals for addressing the greater commuting issues that affect this city.

I believe that the short term effects of tearing up the current bike infrastructure in this city will be just as negative to both car and bike commuters as it is supposed to be positive, while being just as likely to receive identical amounts of complaints about construction and lane reductions in this city than the construction of new bike lanes often is.

And finally, I believe that the current state of bike infrastructure in this city needs more support, not less. People choosing to use alternatives to cars for their commutes aren't obstacles in the way of those who choose not to or cannot, and is a destructive solution to a complex situation that will only further to discourage the large statistical population of Torontonians who believe they could or even wish they could commute using a bike, but lack the necessary infrastructure to do so safely and efficiently.

Permanently bottlenecking future urban developments in Toronto that could forever shape the city for the better in the long term is, in my honest opinion, a shortsighted idea that will turn back the clock of progress in this city for far more than just commuters, forever.