I am opposed to this…

I am opposed to this framework for the following reasons.

1. Bike lanes are a municipal area of responsibility, and the province should not be engaged in this domain. Municipalities such as the City of Toronto undertake extensive community consultation, data analysis, and due consideration when deciding where and how to implement bike lanes. Post-implementation they continue to make assessments and optimization. The province does not add value by interfering in this process.

2. Comments from the Premier and the Minister for Transportation show that this is an ideologically-driven initiative rather than one based on data and analysis. For example, it has been shown by repeated studies, both within Ontario municipalities and abroad, that any increase to the travel times of other road users (such as cars and trucks) caused by the addition of bike lanes is negligible to non-existent. The ostensible reason for this framework - to address congestion and improve travel times on Ontario roads - is simply not supported by evidence.

3. The few comments from the Premier and Minister that refer to data are referring to findings that are out of date or where important analysis is missing. For example, a figure cited is that only 1.2% of “Toronto” commuters travel by bicycle to work. This figure is 13 years old and is from census data covering a massive swath of southern Ontario, from Ajax to Burlington and as far north as Lake Simcoe: areas that have no cycling infrastructure and are irrelevant to the issue of urban bike lanes. In fact, there has been a surge in urban cycle traffic as other, more recent studies show. Most relevant is a 2019 City of Toronto study that identified 70% of Torontonians ride bicycles, of whom 44% are "utilitarian" cyclists who bike to work, shop, travel for social engagements, etc.. It would be expected that similar findings exist in other urban centres. Including irrelevant arguments and statistics indicate this government is cherrypicking data points in an attempt to shore up a purely political stance.

4. This framework distracts from the real actions the provincial government should be taking to address congestion. Ontario should be taking bold actions to vastly expand mass public transit and encourage multiple forms of transportation, especially those that are active and pose the greatest environmental benefits. Ironically, this would entail working with municipalities to enthusiastically increase the number and quality of bike lanes, rather than making them more difficult to implement or removing those already established.

5. The framework also does not specify the costs to be borne my municipal governments in complying with the proposed bike lanes framework. This should be specified by the legislation for transparency and the full awareness of Ontarians, as it appears that the provincial government will impose the financial burden of compliance on municipalities.

Bill 212 is legislation that deliberately seeks to make it more difficult for municipalities to improve cycling infrastructure and make all forms of traffic work well together, and is a poor attempt to address its stated objective of reducing gridlock. I am opposed to it being passed into law.