As a student living in…

As a student living in Toronto and studying in Guelph, I use bike lanes every day for my commute both at home and at school and I would prefer more of them not less! When I do drive, I would prefer that bikes have their own lane so that the relatively lower speed of bike traffic doesn't impede higher speed cars. They are an essential part of infrastructure just like bridges, trains and sidewalks.

Removing bike lanes would only put people like me who rely on them at undue risk of injury by forcing us onto streets between cars. This is a fundamental restriction on my freedom of choice by mandating that anyone that rides a bike must endure a high level of risk to do so. If anything improvements should be made to existing bike infrastructure to further improve rider safety.

The government should not be adding red tape restricting local governments from building infrastructure where it would best help their residents. If the Government of Ontario truly wanted to reduce traffic they would improve transit options allowing constituents to avoid these congested roads. In proof of this, people have counted bikes and cars on Bloor Rd (see link) where, despite occupying less space, counts of bikes rival that of cars.

In summary, removing bike lanes harms bikers safety, reduces overall traffic flow by replacing highly space efficient bikes with low density cars, and impedes car traffic by forcing lower speed bikes to share the same lanes.