Bill 212 directly suppresses…

Bill 212 directly suppresses many societal groups and makes the problem it tries to address worse. This is justified in the following.
Road congestion is caused by too many cars on the road, not by too many bikes. The bill will discourage even more people from using alternative transportation for short trips and will ultimately increase congestion via induced demand. This is especially a problem for those groups who already today refrain from independent and active transportation modes, including children, girls, women, persons with disability, and elderly persons. This affects the overall health of Ontarians, school children's performance, gender equality, and equity efforts. For example, it has been shown that Canadian girls are intentionally held more indoors than Canadian boys, while this is not the case in societies that support active transportation modes. On our streets, conflicts between different traffic modes are common in Ontario, and Ontario's accident and fatal accident statistics are among the worst in comparable provinces and countries. Removing protected bike lanes would make this much worse and increase the inequality among Ontarians.
Protected bike lanes are an important tool to make cycling safer and more accessible. The bill will lead to more fatal accidents on our roads and contribute to the exclusion and suppression of already marginalized groups.
Most importantly, it has been shown over and over again that bicycle lanes and public transportation, but not private vehicle lanes, save us time, especially in dense urban regions such as Toronto. The reason is the number of people that can be transported within a given timeframe. This bill is directly making the problem it tries to address worse.