Bloor St is better with bike…

Bloor St is better with bike lanes. This bill unfairly prioritizes the needs of people living outside of Toronto over those who live and work here. The provincial government should not interfere with municipal decisions, especially when they are failing to provide the basic services the provincial government is actually mandated to provide (education, healthcare, regional transit). Moreover, the entire province pays the price when the provincial government wastes 48 million dollars of our tax dollars to pay for these unnecessary changes, when the money would be better spend on improving regional transit, education, or healthcare.

I live on Bloor St, it is my home address. I watched the current bike lanes being installed and I see them in use every day. Even if I'm not riding a bike myself, I see the benefits every day. They provide additional space and protection between pedestrians and moving vehicles, they improve the flow of local goods and services being delivered, and they offer a healthy option for people to commute to and from downtown.

Bloor St. is not a highway, it's my neighbourhood. When I go out on my balcony or open my windows, it's just a little quieter and more pleasant with 2 lanes of traffic vs. 4. With current zoning and development plans slated to have so much growth on Bloor in the coming decades, it will be the neighbourhood for a lot more people. Removing bike lanes now would be extremely shortsighted as this corridor becomes more and more dense with residents.

This bill is yet another disappointing example of the current provincial government seeking to interfere in municipal policy, where they are simply not equipped or qualified or mandated to understand the needs of the people. Everyone in business understands you want issues to be solved by the people closest to the problem, not by the people who happen to have the most power.

It's also another disappointing example of pandering to the Conservative party base who live in the suburbs surrounding Toronto and vote to keep this government in power. Removal of bike lanes on University, Yonge, and Bloor would not only put people's lives directly in danger, it will also FAIL solve the problem of gridlock, as the streets will simply fill with more cars.

If the province was actually interested in serving the needs of the people, they would take the 48 million dollars it would take to completely disrupt traffic to remove the bike lanes and instead invest it making the EXISTING transit actually reliable, usable, and desirable. You're proposing to add more cars to the exact same roads we should already see reduced volume on if we had properly funded public transit on the existing subway lines.

We would also be much better off if you had delivered on promises to improve and increase GO transit (just a reminder that GO stands for Government of Ontario) -- a service you already have complete control over improving, making desirable, which would ACTUALLY have an impact on gridlock.

Please ask the government to spend a little less time thinking of ways to pander to the Conservative base and spend a little more time on actually improving the lives of all Ontarians. Get more people out of their cars, and provide better public transit.