Reverting bike lanes back to…

Reverting bike lanes back to vehicular lanes to speed up traffic is a poorly-thought out proposal.

1) Bike lanes faciliate the movement of people and goods, not hinder the flow of people and goods. The thing that really hinders traffic in downtown Toronto is on-street parking. On-street parking does not bring much business to downtown shops since just two cars parked in parallel would take up the entire parking space in front of any shop, and given how most drivers cannot parallel-park quickly or park successfully in one try, they hold up traffic behind them, and when exiting the parking space, they need to merge out to oncoming traffic and once again hold up traffic. Drivers are also forced to move to the next lane and cause congestion/near-misses/actual accidents when cruising down a street and suddenly encountering a parked vehicle ahead. Rather than removing a bike lane, it makes far more sense to remove on-street parking.

2) Properly configured/Protected bike lanes ensure the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, especially since most drivers in Canada do not have a habit of checking their respective blind spot when turning. Removal of bike lanes is no different from saying that it is totally acceptable to endanger the lives of people who are not travelling by vehicles as long as those travelling by vehicles are not inconvenienced. Are lives really worth that little in Canada?

3) Traffic in city downtowns have always been bumper-to-bumper. It was bumper-to-bumper before bike lanes were installed. It is bumper-to-bumper after bike lanes were installed. And it will still be bumper-to-bumper if bike lanes are removed. Is there any evidence from anywhere in the world to show that removal of bike lanes in a city causes a significant decrease in travelling time by car? Cars will still have to stop at red lights at every street corner. Cars in downtown Toronto will still be stymied by poor driving etiquette and habits, such as drivers blatantly blocking intersections. No amount of bike lanes, or the lack of it, can remedy this.