Hi there, I have been…

Hi there,

I have been commuting regular as a bike rider in downtown Toronto for the last 2yrs from Parkdale Area to the Financial District on Bay and King St in Toronto. I have never owned a vehicle in Toronto as biking is "always faster than both TTC and driving during peak hours" and I save tremendous time not having to look for parking spaces if I had a car. I also save money on the expenses of owning, operating and maintaining a car.

I strongly oppose Bill 212 in the context of "requiring the province to remove sections of the Bloor Street, Yonge Street, and University Avenue bike lanes in the City of Toronto and return them to a lane of traffic for motor vehicles". For the following reasons:
- I strongly believe that inadequate bike infrastructure is a contributing factor to fewer people cycling. This has been proven in other car centric cities like Dallas, Texas where I visited, and many suburbs of Sydney Australia where I used to live.
- Toronto's growing bike infrastructure has proven to me that its possible to live a healthy and productive life without being car-dependent; compared to when I lived in Sydney, Australia.
- Seeing Torontonians who earn lower incomes than I do, the ability for them as taxpayers to have a choice in their mode of transport such as public transit and cycling for a better life should not be overlooked.
- Furthermore to the above point, we should allow and encourage those who can cycle to where they need to work, play and live, the safety to do so. This ultimately will free up the existing road network to those who absolutely need it. Such as tradespeople, emergency services, freight trucks and those who cannot cycle for medical reasons.
- Making more efficient use of our existing road network is logically cheaper and faster than building new roads.
- Building bicycle infrastructure is cheaper than upgrading a road for more cars.
- It has been proven multiple times over globally that any additonal car lanes only temporarily eases traffic and car congestion returns due to 'Induced Demand'.
- While cars don't cause as much air pollution as they used to, it is logical that fewer cars on the roads (as more people can cycle), will reduce air & noise pollution further.
- Taxpayers money has already been spent to build the infrastructure and it would be logically unwise to spend more taxpayers money to remove the existing bike lanes for only a temporary improvement to car traffic. This would further reduce funding that could be better spent on public transit or other services.

Finally, I strongly believe that cyclists should be able to to contribute in some form to the maintenance of Toronto's biking infrastructure directly; just like a motorist pays their car registration fees for the upkeep of the road network. This could be achieved by levying a small fee as part of the usage of Toronto Bike Share system or by means of bike registration as long as the system does not cost more to administer than it receives in revenue.