The bike lanes that already…

The bike lanes that already exist across the province where a painted lane is provided in a gutter lane without physical barriers are dangerous. This legislation would not only be harmful as it stands, but it also severely overreaches and encroaches on the jurisdiction of municipalities to determine their road network in a local context.

A robust, anti-fragile transportation network relies on a multi-modal approach to transportation options. Not all trips are equal; investing in Ontario's multi-modal transportation network with efficient options will actually reduce gridlock and save everyone time. MTO should be focused first and foremost on regional connections, for example, the many in-progress public transit projects that are just steps away from being operable to the public and actually helping people get around the province.

A policy to 'reduce gridlock, saving you time' should involve the core principles of Transportation Demand Management (Reduce; trips that can be avoided, Retime; encouraging trips that to be made outside of peak hours, Remode; taking different transportation modes that are more efficient during peak hours).

Ontario can do many tangible things to manage transportation demand; it could be:
- encouraging employers' work-from-home models
- putting in place measures to cool the commercial office space market,
- easing zoning restrictions to promote walkability and mixed-use development
- Encourage municipalities to remove parking minimums in residential and commercial developments and incentivize employees and residents with alternative options like transit passes, car share, bike parking, bike share, ride share, etc.
- require municipalities to produce a strategic Transportation Demand Management plan and provide a small amount of funding for public engagement and education to implement these plans
- across the province, provide a framework for Ontario's larger municipalities to implement congestion pricing, which can effectively incentivize alternative modes or times for travel in/out of the city core from neighbouring suburbs.

Trialled and tested in countless cities, measures like narrowing streets, daylighting intersections, and restricting turns are changes that produce more successful results in keeping traffic moving rather than maintaining or adding an additional traffic lane to streets. Not only this, but as soon as a second lane is added, there is considerable weaving back and forth between lanes, which creates more speed variation, sudden stopping and subsequently, more gridlock. In many cases, the second lane does provide the ability to pass slower traffic to the left in the left passing lane. Streets with third and fourth lanes only carry the problems without any of the advantages. Where bike lanes remove a traffic lane, in most cases, it provides extra options for people using public spaces to travel using other transportation modes. As someone who understands just the basics of traffic and transportation, I know that wide roadways for cars do not 'reduce gridlock' or save time for most people.

Bill 212 is dangerous, destructive, and very irresponsible. Please listen to what municipal and provincial/state governments worldwide have been doing the past few decades and finding very successful. This bike lane conundrum is clearly a distraction to the ongoing and highly contested Highway 413 project that has proven ties to the Premier's office and his personal connections. We see you. It is everyone's responsibility to do everything they can to stop these projects that are being passed along with the disapproval of most Ontarians while Ontarians foot the entire bill.