The bike lane portion of…

The bike lane portion of this bill is not in anyone's best interest. The costly removal will make traffic worse and jeopardize the lives of vulnerable road users. The provincial government should stay out of cities jurisdiction, and use taxpayer money towards projects that bring the province forward, not backward. If discussions are needed in attempts to mitigate traffic congestion, fine. But deciding that bike lanes on bloor, yonge and university will be ripped out no matter what the data says, is undemocratic and wrong.

There are no secondary streets parallel to these, as the grid is disjointed and disrupted by rivers, rail corridors and cemeterys. Forcing traffic to share lanes with cars will put lives at risk, and slow down drivers who have to wait behind bikes. This will lead to less people travelling by bike, and more cars on the road and transit users overcrowding the network.

The line 1 and 2 subways, lines that go directly under the streets in question, can carry higher volumes of people than the 401. And the expanding GO network-led by your administration, can mive way more people into the city centre than any roads or highways. An extra lane for cars on three roads will do nothing to address the regional traffic issues and is only a political ploy to gain support from drivers.

The only solution to traffic congestion is providing alternates to driving. Cities from London to New York to Los Angeles know this, and so does your government. The data does not support this decision and we did not sign up to have our taxpayer dollars go towards such a reckless policy. My conservative voting friends and family will not vote for a government that puts the lives of their loved ones at risk. Please reverse course.