Bill 212 is misguided and…

Bill 212 is misguided and not supported by data. Removing bike lanes will not ease congestion. There is no data to support this position. There are countless studies and research papers that outline that more lanes means more cars on the road (referred to as induced demand) which will lead to even more congestion. That is why world-class cities all over the world have and continue to move towards adding bike lanes and investing in public transit. We are at least a decade behind and the removal of bike lanes will set us back another decade on top of that. We're going backwards. This measure will not ease congestion, but what it will do is strip all the safety that comes with these bike lanes, not just for people on bikes, but also for pedestrians, force even more people to choose their car as their mode of transportation, and further fuel the climate crisis we find ourselves in. Congestion will not and can not be addressed if you don't provide convenient and safe alternatives for people to choose a mode of transportation other than their car. It's impossible, especially for a city with Toronto's expanding population. Toronto has had traffic forever and will continue to have traffic forever unless we address the root cause of the traffic: we aren't investing nearly enough towards safe and convenient alternatives such as a connected network of bike lanes and quick, convenient and affordable public transit. The removal of these bike lanes will only set us back further and will undoubtedly come at the cost of human life. Climate change will continue to escalate, people will continue to be killed on our unsafe streets, and congestion will remain as bad as ever. This is not the answer.