There are many reasons to…

There are many reasons to encourage the use of bike lanes and to make it easier for municipalities to put them in place, mainly from the numerous and expensive externalities of cars. However, I oppose this act for a much simpler reason: it is a massively inefficient operation of government.

For good reason, governmental powers are distributed to smaller-scale governments that will have more understanding of local situations. It would be absurd for the federal government to approve every new traffic light in every town in the country, and it is nearly as absurd for the provincial government to involve itself in the decisions of where to put bike lanes.

This is especially true given the structure of the provincial government, where a single party is elected for the entire province. There is a diversity of political opinions within the regions of Ontario: typically, rural areas are more conservative and urban areas are more liberal. Thus, whatever provincial government is in power, large regions of the province are going to be opposed to that government's politics. A sensible government would allow each region to make locally relevant decisions, such as the presence of bike lanes. If a left-leaning government were in power, would it make any sense for them to mandate the addition of bike lanes in smaller rural areas where travel by bike is infeasible? Does it make any more sense for a right-leaning government to prevent the addition of bike lanes to dense urban centers where there is simply not enough space for everyone to drive?

I don't think anyone wants their provincial government controlling local bike lanes, whether they are preventing them or adding them. And of course, the provincial government simply doesn't have the resources to understand the minutiae of traffic throughout the province, so this bill would mean the province makes the wrong decisions sometimes, whether that wrong decision allows a bike lane that shouldn't be, or prevents one that should. Who will voters blame when this happens? The provincial government, of course.