My sister was killed by a…

My sister was killed by a car while on her bike where there were no bike lanes.

I myself commuted to work for 25 years by bike to a management job in the federal government and was a victim of a hit and run by a dentist while I was on my bike (police were called), as well had several "cut offs" by cars. All these occurred when there were no bike lanes.

In my last 3 years of commuting, bike lanes were installed and it instantly became safer and I no longer felt threatened and vulnerable. No incidents in 3 years!

I also take the same roads at times with my car and witnessed that the bike lanes did not impede or slow traffic, it is evident the impediment to traffic as it is the population growth in our cities are causing the traffic woes. The 2001 Ottawa population was 774,072, in 2021 it was 1,017,449. That is a whopping 31% increase in population.

At the same time in the last 3 years since bike lanes, I saw a 200% increase in bike commuters as safe bike lanes were built, and a lack of locker and bike rack space in our building became a problem over the same period. My office remained the same occupancy, so it is the availability of bike lanes that brought in more bike commuters.

Removing existing bike lanes goes against reducing traffic. Mixing bikes with traffic will cause accidents which will "stop" traffic.

Use the volumes of data from around the world to make policy, do not base policy on a frustrated car commuter focusing on the 4 feet of road space used by thousands of cyclists as the city grows 30%.