Comment
I am against this bill. It is proven that bike lanes reduce car traffic when implemented in a way that makes the cyclist feel safe from cars. Adding more car lanes to a road only creates an effect called "induced demand", which then leads to more traffic on roads where call lanes are added or left in place.
By not trusting cities to make their own decisions on bike lanes, we also put cyclists at risk. By removing bike lanes and not allowing for bike lanes to be built, we force cyclists to ride WITH cars. It is dangerous, and as someone who is a car user and a bike user, it makes passing a cyclist more difficult. When cyclists have their own dedicated lanes, it is better for everyone.
When we take a car lane of traffic away from cars, we also reduce road noise and make areas of our cities more enjoyable as a pedestrian also. There are so many roads that people hate walking beside because it is a 6 lane stroad (a road that neither functions well as a road nor a street, but is somehow both). We cannot reduce traffic by reducing bike lanes and maintaining large multi-lane roads because the issue with traffic is the square footage use on roads. Cars take up a larger footprint on roads than bikes and transit per person. With cycling and transit you can fit more people in a smaller amount of road pavement. Transit and cycling infrastructure is efficiency of road space and usage.
There are people like myself who would rather cycle and transit than drive my car. When I live close to transit or safe bike infrastructure, I choose to take those instead of driving. There are other people like me who will choose alternatives to driving if they are given proper infrastructure. By getting people like me out of cars and onto bike lanes and transit, we reduce traffic for those who choose to or must drive, because we remove the amount of cars on the road. Those who wish to drive still can. It is about providing choice to Canadians. Forcing bikes to take side streets does not always work because it forces the cyclist to ride their bikes far out of the way of their destination and adds to travel time. It does not really allow it to be reliable alternative transport without access to safe and separated bike lanes on main roads.
Canada has some of the worst traffic worldwide due to our inability to listen to repeated studies about road design and road safety in favour of a car dominated society. This is ironic as Canadians every year choose to vacation in some of the most walkable cities in the world due to their atmosphere and pedestrian and cycling friendly infrastructure (and yes, these are cities who previously adopted large-scale car infrastructure but have since changed their ways of moving around their cities in the last 60 years). It frustrates me that bills like this are preventing Canada from moving forward and progressing road safety like many countries and cities across the globe based on preconceived notions on what people believe fixes traffic (but increases it), over the information that we KNOW reduces traffic.
This feels like a huge overstep into municipal politics and is not in line with the studies we know to be true about traffic, cars usage, and road safety. Leave it to the municipalities to choose what they want in their own cities. This bill, by restricting the implementation of bike lanes, will cause an increase deaths of cyclists by cars across Ontario.
Submitted November 19, 2024 11:58 AM
Comment on
Bill 212 - Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 - Framework for bike lanes that require removal of a traffic lane.
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019-9266
Comment ID
117663
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