Hello, Please give up this…

Hello,

Please give up this bill. It is a terrible idea today and a terrible idea for the future of our cities and their inhabitants.

Bike lanes are not an issue, they are part of the solution to fight traffic jams, air pollution and noise pollution. They are the perfect complementary solution to public transportation as bike racks do not take a lot of space and a bike allows the user to access areas that public transportation does not cover. I think they are also great to make Toronto's neighborhoods more lively, more small-businesses friendly and more human.
If there are traffic jams it is because there are too many cars on the roads and not enough alternatives, not the other way around. Also a lot of streets and lanes are closed due to road works and constructions, so this creates punctual issues.
Timing is not ideal, with all the constructions going on, in the streets and also TTC maintenance and construction works.
Destroying all the progress that has been done to offer people alternatives in the recent years is certainly not the solution to traffic jams.
Most people do not use bikes just for fun, it is first and foremost a more practical and quicker way of moving in a big city like Toronto than any other means of transportation.

Plus, the available literature actually shows evidence that creating more road lanes makes things worse in terms of traffic. It follows the famous law of supply and demand. The more road lanes one opens, the more people will think "hey let's use the car now, they have added a road lane so it should be a quicker drive"...

Another issue with your bill is people's safety... Not having bike lanes makes roads more dangerous for everyone. No one wants a biker at the hospital or dead, and no one wants a pedestrian injured because a biker was using a sidewalk to be safe when riding his or her bike.
Every time I ride my bike in Toronto on roads that have no bike lanes I feel unsafe, even though I have decades of experience and even though I used to practice mountain biking in a club.
Even with experience, protective equipment, lights etc... a biker is vulnerable in front of a car or a truck.

Instead of paving the way for more and more cars, why don't we all work on effective alternatives.
Just like pedestrians, cars and (some) LRTs have their own "lanes", bikes should have dedicated lanes too.

Even from a financial perspective it makes more sense. It is a cheaper, more affordable solution that can/could be better combined with public transportation to go from point A to point B.
And instead one single road lane you can have 2 to 4 bike lanes or a bike lane and a parking spot or a bike lane and restaurants' terraces. This makes a neighborhood more economically powerful.

Let's stop living in the past when everything was built around cars and for car users. The more roads you build the more cars will be on the roads, and the more traffic jams will block the streets and roads making our cities a terrible place to live in.
Bikes and bikes lanes are not the issue, they are part of the solution.

Sure, there is a need for better city planning to make Toronto more attractive and more habitable for everyone. No doubt about it! There is a booming population, this probably requires a denser housing combined with an improved public transports system to move millions of people effectively.

Please, I beg you, do not make things worse and more dangerous by adding road lanes and removing bike lanes...