There is simple way to…

There is simple way to reduce car congestion. Give people a credible alternative that gets them out of their cars and gets them where they need to go. Separated bike lanes reduce the number of cars on the road, and protect cyclists and drivers. If you take away a bike lane, where do you think that the bikes are going to go? Some people are going to get back in their cars and create more traffic. Others will keep riding but now they're going to be in the main lanes with the cars. This will also make it slower to travel by car. Cyclists are not going to take side streets because these are often at best inefficient and indirect routes that add too much travel time, and at worst impossible routes that don't connect the points of departure and arrival.

It's easy to predict what will happen when bike lanes are gone. According to the Highway Traffic Act, slow moving vehicles must keep the right *as much as is safe*. This often means riding approximately 1 meter from the curb. Riding too close to the curb isn't safe for a bike because cars will always try to squeeze by when there isn't enough space. Cars will have to slow to wait until it is safe to pass. Again, The Highway Traffic Act requires a minimum of 1 meter between the passing car and the bicycle. How does this scenario make it possible for cars to move through the city more quickly? The answer is simple. It does not.

With cyclists back in the main road lanes, drivers will become even more impatient than they are. They will not wait. They will pass too closely. Impatient and frustrated drivers in their cars will hit cyclists. Impatient and frustrated drivers in their cars will injure cyclists. Impatient and frustrated drivers in their cars will kill cyclists.

What about increases in automobile insurance premiums that will result from all these additional risks of collision, personal injury, and death?

The current government has never given up the chance to choose good politics over good policy. Stop pandering to rural and suburban voters who very literally have no skin in the game, and who are also in all likelihood going to vote Conservative anyway. For a government that loves to say it is "for the people" it sure isn't listening to the ones who will be most affected by this legislation.

Congestion is a real problem in Toronto. It needs a real solution that takes people out of their cars and helps them get where they need to go in other ways. For all the Ford government's talk about making Toronto a world-class city, it needs to do something that takes us in that direction. It doesn't need to go through this obvious political show that will benefit nobody. The other world class cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York City, and even Montreal (where people use the bikes lanes in the middle of a much harder and longer winter that Toronto's) are watching what the Ford government is doing. When they're not shaking their heads in disbelief at the Ford government's small minded plan, they're laughing at its foolishness.