I use bike lanes. I live in…

I use bike lanes. I live in downtown Toronto. I do not own a car. The removal of these critical, widely used bike lanes would be a net negative, reducing the quality of life for myself and thousands of others in Toronto. Such a removal would just be an extension of provincial government overreach, and another reason helping convince me that I should permanently move out of Ontario.

I am highly educated, top 10% income earner, and I would wager that many that feel the same would fall in the same cohort. Alienating and losing us would be a significant loss for the province -- which is already experiencing increasing brain drain -- a loss both in terms of tangible tax revenue, as well as the more intangible benefits of having an educated, diverse, urban population contributing to the province's economic output.

Bike lanes save lives. Bike lanes are inevitable in a rapidly developing, dense urban city. Enacting policy to further entrench car dependency in our cities is extremely myopic, and will not serve to reduce congestion from single-occupant automobiles, but rather just increase the capacity for such, and consequently, increase province's emissions per capita.

The province should instead focus on encouraging alternative transportation methods to reduce congestion, such as public transit, walking, and yes, biking, while also leaving municipalities decades long investments into infrastructure intact.

If the provincial government wants Ontario to be "open for business," it should recognize that Toronto is already behind when compared to other "world-class" cities; objectively regressing in our infrastructure will do the opposite of what we want to do in order to provide a compelling case for businesses, engineers, academics, artists, etc., to want to come to Ontario.