I am a cyclist in the east…

I am a cyclist in the east end of Toronto who bikes to work, to get groceries, to see friends - to do pretty much everything. I see how efficiently the bike lanes move people because the TTC doubles my commute. On my commute I see kids going to school every weekday by bike. By biking I save money (but I still pay taxes that contribute to the city), do not use any greenhouse gases, and contribute to the local economy (it's a lot easier to buy things on your way home on a bike than by TTC). This bill proposes wasting tax payer money in order to rip out infrastructure that was just installed. It proposes ripping out infrastructure that will put people like me, like those kids I see going to school, at risk. Where does the government think that the cyclists will go? Does it think we'll just disappear? Instead, we'll take the lane, and some of us will be killed by aggressive drivers who use their car as a weapon. Taking the lane will substantially slow down traffic. We should have vulnerable road users in their own lane of traffic, which usually moves far faster than lanes of cars. Gridlock is created by cars, by poor traffic enforcement and blocking the box, by constant standing in no standing zones, and by turning lanes - not by bikes.