Background It is remarkable…

Background

It is remarkable the extent to which this government will go to keep all of us driving gas guzzling cars, despite the known impact of that policy on wildfires, heat waves, massive rainfall events and other environmental disasters. We need to do everything we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late. Instead, this Premier:

1. Eliminated the electric vehicle purchase subsidy
2. Removed the fee for a driver’s licence as a “general” measure to give inflation relief – encouraging more driving, and ignoring the people who can’t afford cars, who are the most in need of inflation relief.
3. Proposed a ludicrous plan to build a tunnel under Highway 401 for $50-100 billion, which (even if it was successful in temporarily reducing traffic along that corridor) would dump a massive number of additional cars onto the streets of Toronto – increasing congestion and requiring ever more road building to avoid complete gridlock.
4. Wants to build Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, rather than improving transit or rail options. In the end they will not reduce congestion. They will, however, enrich the Premier’s real estate development buddies, as they build sprawl north of Toronto rather than transit-oriented development in Toronto.
5. Appears to have no knowledge of economics, specifically the concept of induced demand. The more you expand roads, the more people will use them rather than better options like public transit, cycling or walking. The roads will fill up again – but this time with even more cars and congestion.
6. Claims he wants to reduce congestion. If he truly wanted to reduce congestion, he would not suggest that a few bike lanes are a major cause of that congestion. He would look in the mirror, and start doing his job, rather than attempting to do the Toronto Mayor’s job for her:
a. Force Metrolinx to say what is wrong with the Eglinton LRT, why it isn’t operating already, and what the plan and timing is to open it. If they won’t do that, fire the leader of Metrolinx, and perhaps some others.
b. Open the Finch LRT , and identify and fix the causes of perennial delays in Metrolinx construction timetables.
c. Complete the Ontario Line ASAP.
d. Cancel the 413 and Bradford Bypass projects and put the money saved into new dedicated transit lines (subways or above ground in their own right of way) in Toronto and other cities across the province. This will ensure that transit speed is much more competitive with car travel (particularly when time to park is factored in).
e. Fix by far the biggest cause of congestion in downtown Toronto – the inability to access the Gardiner Expressway. This was always a problem, but became monumentally worse because of the changes led by John Tory to close the eastern (Lake Shore) entrance and maintain the full Expressway, for the benefit of the 15% who traverse the whole city, rather than tear a portion down, for the benefit of downtown liveability and the 85% who use the expressway to get downtown and back. We now have three downtown entrances instead of four – and it can now take 20 minutes to go one block towards the expressway on many days. The Province should work with the City to tear a section of the Expressway down and rebuild with much better access roads/ramps to enter the elevated Expressway from the downtown area to the east (at Jarvis?) and to the west (at York?). Maybe that section could use a short tunnel to allow traffic to flow freely to both the Expressway and to Lake Shore in the very limited space available.
f. In addition, the Waterfront LRTs (both east and west) should be funded to relieve pressure on the Expressway itself. The Lakeshore Go line improvements (electrification and at least 15 minute service) should be fast-tracked – they too are needed to relieve pressure on the Expressway.
g. Work with cities across the Province to provide reliable funding for frequent public transit service and new public transit lines/facilities, especially where those new facilities will relieve pressure to expand roads.
h. Rather than paying to force cities to take bike lanes out, give them specific funding required to put bike lanes in without reducing the current car travel lanes, if those lanes are truly needed based on current traffic levels. Specifically on Bloor Street west of Runnymede, give Toronto the money to buy the land necessary to expand the car lanes at the South Kingsway/Jane Street and Royal York intersections while keeping the bike lanes. With those two areas fixed, the overall traffic movement on Bloor Street west of Runnymede would be in the acceptable range. This would be a City/Province co-operative step forward to a sustainable future, rather than a unilateral forced step back to a car-dependent past.

Specific Comments on Bill 212

Highway 413

As noted above, Highway 413 is a huge mistake. It is a corrupt gift from the Premier to his developer buddies, at the cost of the environment. There will be no long term benefit (once induced demand clogs the highways again), except for the developers, who will get a windfall likely far higher than the $8 billion identified by the corrupt process in attempting to open the Greenbelt land. The Highway, of course, would destroy Greenbelt land and traverse many sensitive watersheds. This bill guts any need for environmental review that might actually stop the highway, and sets up onerous fines and roadblocks for anyone who might want to oppose or slow down building the highway. This is an unacceptable assault on our democratic right to oppose a government action which is fundamentally unsound. We are going to see quite enough of that south of the border – there is no place for that in Canada.

Highway Traffic Act / Bike Lane Law

Once again, this legislation is an assault on local democracy – the obvious idea that local issues are better dealt with locally. The citizens of Toronto elected Toronto City Council to deal with bike lanes and other local road issues – not Doug Ford. In fact, the citizens of Toronto directly rejected Doug Ford when he ran for mayor. If he wants to be mayor, he should resign and run for mayor in the next election. Otherwise, he should let Toronto City Council decide what is best for Toronto – and take the consequences at the next election if their constituents don’t like what they are doing.

The premier obviously wants a fight with Toronto City Council, in order to (he thinks) improve his electoral chances in the election he will call soon. Even if one thinks that is an acceptable thing for him to do, he does not have to drag other cities with very different situations into that fight. The legislation only applies to “prescribed municipalities”. If it is implemented, the number of prescribed municipalities should be very few – perhaps just Toronto. Many cities in the province have multiple roads that are overbuilt, thanks to overzealous traffic planners. Those roads could easily have car lanes removed without major traffic impact – cities should not be impeded from doing that.

I agree that cities should do what they can to avoid major traffic problems when they add bike lanes to major roads. Ideally, no intersections should be at level of service (LOS) F, and preferably not LOS E either. Toronto’s data after the latest signal optimization on Bloor Street still shows Royal York Road and the South Kingsway intersections with LOS F status. The city needs to improve those two intersections. To the extent that the threatened legislation puts pressure on the city to do that, it does have some value.

At the same time, though, there is no option other than Bloor Street to cross the Humber River in that area. Having a safe route to cross the Humber River is critical for bicycles, just as it is for cars. If the Province forces the removal of the bike lanes, they have destroyed a vital link in the city wide cycling network that we must build – for equity for those who can’t afford a car, for vulnerable road user safety, but also for greenhouse gas reductions and congestion relief. I should note that the bridge itself is not the issue, which is normal. Like many roads, the capacity of Bloor Street is determined by how many lanes there are at intersections that have many cars turning. In between the intersections (on the bridge, for example), one lane in each direction is perfectly adequate.

Some say they are fine with bike lanes, as long as they go on “less busy parallel routes” to the main arterial roads . I challenge anyone who says that to draw the route they would build along the “less busy parallel routes” along the length of Bloor Street (particularly from Jane Street to Kipling, but not just there). Then ask them to drive that route in a car (which can detour with much less effort than a cyclist would need) , and see how happy they are.

So we need to find a way to accommodate both cars and cyclists on Bloor Street. As noted above, I believe the answer is to rebuild Bloor Street at the Royal York and South Kingsway/Jane intersections by purchasing land to add back car lanes while retaining the bike lanes. This will not be cheap. If the Province really wants to reduce congestion, they can help fund that cost – which will restore Bloor’s car carrying capacity and add new capacity for travel by bike – a win/win. The cost may not be much more than they have already agreed to pay to rip the bike lanes out.

I suspect from my brief look at the Yonge Street bike lanes, there may be similar issues there, that may require land purchases as well. As for University Avenue, I have done multiple walks along the route in rush hour. The street was actually rebuilt with the full planning approach, and it shows it . The traffic generally moves smoothly south of Bloor. Where there are issues, it is not caused by the bike lanes. Construction and too many pedestrians to allow right turns were issues in spots, but not the bike lanes. South of King or Wellington Street, southbound traffic did get bad – driven by the back-up trying to get on the Gardiner, nothing to do with bike lanes. Northbound, there was a substantial slowdown at Adelaide because of cars not clearing the box, and so cars couldn’t get through the intersection – again, nothing to do with bikes. I see no reason to remove the University lanes south of Bloor. The Premier doesn’t know what he is talking about if he thinks bike lanes are a major cause of congestion there.

If the Province does go through with this legislation, it should do three things:

1. Minimize the number of prescribed municipalities (perhaps Toronto only).
2. Develop criteria for approval or denial of municipal requests that is consistent with the Complete Streets philosophy. That says that some reduction in car traffic capacity is an acceptable compromise if it allows space for better active transportation options. Limit denials or requests for improvement to plans that expect poor levels of service post implementation (or currently, if you are reviewing an existing cycling facility). “Poor” is defined as LOS F, or perhaps LOS E or F.
3. Commit to transparent reporting every 6 months – how many requests received for review, how many reviews finalized, what percentage of finalized reviews were approved/denied/changes requested, average time to make the decision, reviews currently outstanding. It would also be helpful to have a public searchable database of project reviews, so citizens can see the exact damage the Premier has done with this legislation. The reporting should also include a count of cyclists and pedestrian deaths or serious injuries in the province, so we continue to see the human cost of the premier’s misguided “car first” policies.