I currently lived in the…

I currently lived in the Annex and previously lived at Yonge and St. Clair when the Yonge bike lanes were implemented. I am a driver,pedestrian, and transit user and only use the bike lanes occasionally.

I wholly support the bike lanes and think it would be a mistake to remove them. The bike lines improve the quality of the street-scape on all the streets, making it safer and more pleasant for both pedestrians and cyclists. As someone who mostly walks, I am more likely to frequent my local business if the street scape is more pleasant to walk along, and has fewer cars. When I walk with my nephew in the area, it feels safer with the bike lanes, as there is more of a division between us and traffic.

I agree that congestion is a problem in the City. However, there is ample evidence which shows that removing bike-lanes will not improve congestion in the City, and in fact bike lanes are more efficient at moving people than car lanes are (https://nacto.org/publication/transit-street-design-guide/introduction/…). The weather is often raised as a concern, but I see people biking all year round, and personally I walk to work most of the year regardless of the weather. There are only a handful of days where the weather is inhospitable to biking, and winter weather especially can usually be mitigated with proper snow/ice clearing.

Rather than ripping up bike lanes that already exist, which will cost money, and won't meaninfully solve the problem, the government should focus on funding initatives that are proven to work such as increasing funding and frequency of public transit. In a growing city, we cannot build enough roads for everyone to drive everywhere without gridlock - its a physics problem. Cars take up more room than people.

Procedurally, it is unclear why we should make it more complicated and difficult to build bike-lanes. This is appropriately within the jurisidction of the relevant cities who can decide for themselves whether the bike lanes are appropriate based on their unique circumastances. In the City of Toronto, before bike lanes are implemented there are ample studies on placement, traffic, parking etc. Another step will only slow down, and add expense to what is already a thorough process. In addition, Toronto has repeatedly voted for bike lanes.

Finally, adding a lane of traffic, that will likely only be used for parking anyway will likely only increase traffic as people will be forced to change lanes, which increases traffic and congestion.