As a young professional in a…

As a young professional in a world of wide ranging opportunities, one of the most attractive features of Toronto has been its non-driver friendly infrastructure. Making my home here has been significantly dependent on the TTC and bike friendly roads and paths. On the other hand, I have seen accident after accident among friends and have lost people I love due to unsafe conditions on certain high traffic roads. As someone who has personally survived hit and runs and multiple car accidents, I cherish roads with additional designations and safety for bikers. We as a city need to promote safety for bikers and that will not come by reducing lanes on major streets. In fact, I fear we will only lose more lives to worse conditions. Toronto has the opportunity to be a leader on the global stage when it comes to providing for the majority of citizens who are distinctly not car driving commuters. Most of us get to work and where we need to be by biking, walking, and TTC. We should be promoting healthy activity rather than making it significantly less safe for bikers. If we get rid of lanes, bikers will be forced on to sidewalks as we already see on these busier streets such as Bloor. We specifically see this with Uber and Doordash bikers. Avoiding unsafe roads, they ride on sidewalks. Their lives matter and their service has come to be relied upon by large portions of the population. We cannot take for granted their labour and their lives nor can we ignore that this proposal would benefit the business class above commuting workers who are simply trying to reduce their emissions and remain active. Our health and safety deserves to be taken seriously and so I am strongly against this proposal and would propose instead further development of bike lanes and pedestrian safe infrastructure. Thank you for your time and consideration.