It is unbelievably…

It is unbelievably disheartening to hear that the provincial government is attempting to remove bike lanes in the City of Toronto.

The province’s plan is arbitrary, costly, and not based on any evidence. It’s a bad use of taxpayer dollars. Tearing up our roads will increase congestion and make them less safe for both cyclists and drivers.

Mayor Chow expressed this in a public statement on October 23rd:

“Ripping up our roads will make people less safe, make traffic worse, and put lives at risk[...] The congestion in this city is partially the result of the province’s failure to deliver transit projects on time and has led to long construction delays and years of road closures. Stay in your lane, open the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRTs and fix the chaos at Metrolinx.”

The province is baselessly accusing cyclists for creating traffic on the streets of Toronto and is blatantly ignoring the real problem here -- there are too many cars on the road. If the province is genuinely interested in improving traffic in the city, they would invest in improving our transit infrastructure.

As a resident, passionate cyclist, and frustrated urbanist, I urge the government to put an end to this political mess. Stop creating a divide between cyclists and drivers. Make choices based on evidence and data. I deeply oppose the introduction of this bill.