Dear Premier and his…

Dear Premier and his esteemed colleagues,

I am deeply concerned over all of the suggested plans for changes in bike lane policies, and most importantly, in the removal of three of Toronto's most important cycling paths. As someone who has lived in both Scarborough and the KW area, I have found cycling paths to be wonderful pieces of infrastructure. Examples of planned and converted bike lanes from all around the world have shown how these have helped to create happy and healthy communities. Paris, France and cities in The Netherlands get a lot of attention, but also look at the snowy cities of Bergen, Norway and Oulu, Finland. Projects from both Ontario and abroad have shown that bike lanes offer all of the following benefits:

1. Bike lanes are good for business;
2. They’re good for the environment;
3. They’re good for public and personal health;
4. They give us freedom and mobility;
5. Bike lanes save lives.

Protected bike lanes promote strong cities and communities, while ensuring the health and safety of our communities that should come first and foremost. Offering a safe place for cyclists to ride on main roads allows them to get to their desired destinations more directly than moving these to side streets.

Moreover, these offer an alternative path for emergency vehicles to get around vehicles and pedestrians, and cyclists can get out of the way much faster than cars. I have seen this occur before in Kitchener, either to park the emergency vehicle out of the way of drivers, or to avoid a buildup of traffic.

Finally, the lanes earmarked for demolition are only part of a growing bike network. Closing these down based on currently low cycling traffic would be inconclusive reasoning, as the team at Oh The Urbanity! on YouTube has pointed out. Once the missing sections are filled in along Yonge, Bloor and University, there will be numerous people using these to get to popular destinations along these routes by cycling. Cutting off lanes that have yet to reach maturity will only necessitate expensive rebuilds in the future.

Painted bike lanes could never replace the benefits that these protected lanes offer, and having no nearby bike lanes would hurt communities that are developing in cities today. I request that you rescind this proposal so that the future of our communities may remain bright.