What a waste of taxpayer…

What a waste of taxpayer money. Why is the provincial government meddling in municipal matters? Why are you going to undo progress in a city and why should the taxpayers of Sudbury or Newcastle or Windsor or Ottawa pay for the removal of bike lanes in Toronto? And who is going to compensate the municipal taxpayers of Toronto for the money their city already spent putting in these bike lanes and conducting studies on these bike lanes? I mean, it's pure stupidity to say "oh, we'll pay to remove the bike lanes" and think that's good enough to compensate for the loss. We've already spent millions of dollars to put them in. How are you going to get rid of gridlock by returning those areas to a construction zone AGAIN? They've already dealt with the construction of the bike lanes, and now you want to put the businesses and residents of that area through more construction? Do you not have better things to do and spend money on? Housing? Highways? Healthcare? Buck a beer?

And that's just the financial considerations. What about the safety? What side street should Toronto choose to replace the Yonge St bike lane? There's no north/south street that meets the requirement. So cyclists will just have to bike down Yonge anyway, just like they did before, but now they'll be in traffic. Dangerous. And slow. I'm a cyclist, and I can tell you, cars don't like it when we take the lane, even when we have the right to do so for our own safety. Wouldn't it help with gridlock if the slow cyclists were off to the side, in their safe bike lane? Why do you want them in the street? Have we not had enough cyclists die this year? Are you aware that cyclists are taxpayers? A dead cyclist doesn't pay taxes or contribute to the economy. Even if the cyclist isn't killed and is just injured, they may not be able to work, and they're going to burden the already overburdened health care system. I thought Conservatives were supposed to be good with money. We don't care if Doug Ford has to sit in traffic for an extra two minutes. His inconvenience is not worth a cyclist's life.

And since this bill is supposedly about the environmental impacts of gridlock - you do know that bicycles are human powered, right? Like, they don't create pollution. If more people felt safer to bike, fewer cars would be on the road. So there'd be less car pollution. When I commute to work, biking in the bike lane, blowing by all the cars lining up - I think to myself, "boy, I'm glad I'm not a car in this line". And if I wasn't biking, I would be a car in that line. Creating pollution and not getting exercise. Then I get to the intersection and see why there's such a long line of cars. It's drivers, blocking the box. Not bike related delays - just stupid driver delays. Removing the bike lanes won't fix stupid drivers.

Have you looked at places where the cycling network is better than ours? Shouldn't we be aiming to improve cycling infrastructure so more people feel safe to bike? Bike lanes are essential to that. If there aren't bike lanes to bike in, people are going to have to take the lane for their own safety. And driving behind a slow cyclist going up a hill isn't going to reduce gridlock. It will probably just create road rage and more dead cyclists. There are going to be dead cyclists on the routes the province has either prevented bike lanes from going into, or ripped already built bike lanes out of as a result of this stupid, ill-informed bill. And to anyone who votes to pass this bill - I hope you can't sleep at night. I hope the guilt of their blood on your hands keeps you awake. Shame on you.