This Bill is the single…

This Bill is the single worst piece of proposed legislation I have ever come across in Canada. Bike lanes are essential transportation infrastructure for a significant and growing portion of the population, especially in Toronto. Those who cannot drive, whether for economic or health reasons, as well as those who would like to do their part in avoiding catastrophic climate change in the coming decades, will be left with worse transportation options if this bill is passed. Furthermore, the idea that removing bike lanes would alleviate traffic congestion is incorrect and an extremely short-sighted view. Adding additional car lanes to individual streets does not help significantly reduce traffic because it simply moves the traffic bottleneck to other streets in the grid. However, allowing drivers to take alternate forms of transportation, such as cycling, helps immensely with reducing traffic because it removes cars from the road, the things that cause all the traffic. Many people who currently use the bike lanes in Toronto, or who would use future bike lanes, will instead drive, making traffic much worse. Those who choose to continue cycling or who have to continue cycling (because they still need to go places) will instead bike in the car lanes, which will both increase traffic and cause people to die in inevitable collisions between bikes and cars.

The current provincial government seems steadfast in making Toronto the least functional city in the country. While our counterparts in Quebec and BC have noticed that cars are an inefficient method of moving large numbers of people in dense cities, Ontario is not only refusing to accept that fact, but is also actively going against the clear desires of the people of Toronto (through their municipal government) who want to see the city they live in continue to grow and modernize. The government makes arguments using outdated and misleading census data to make this seem like a "common sense" bill, but it goes against established research and will make the lives of Torontonians worse.

The government also publicly stated that they would look to add bike lanes to side streets when removing or not approving them on main roads. Yet there is nothing in this bill mentioning that intention. Cars are inefficient and relatively unsafe for travel in Toronto. Building a comprehensive transit (this part is going fairly well) and bike lane (this part would be going well if the city of Toronto municipal government were allowed to do its job) network will improve transportation around the city and actually improve congestion in the process by removing cars from the road. If Doug Ford doesn't understand this, he should let the people of Toronto (not the suburbs) do what they want because we, at least, seem to.