The Province of Ontario is…

The Province of Ontario is attempting to dictate and over-ride the informed urban planning practices of the municipality of Toronto. The Toronto municipality and the people of Toronto deserve the right to jurisdiction over planning and infrastructure decisions. Doug Ford and the PCs are not qualified to dictate best practices in urban roadway design. The process of Urban Planning ought to be carried out under the expertise of qualified urban planning officials, urban designers, as well as community members within the city of Toronto. We as a municipality, should not have to seek approval of the Province for planning matters such as bicycle lanes. With the proposed removal of bike lanes, planned highways, and destruction of natural public space, The Province is demonstrating a deeply misguided and unsustainable understanding of urban planning, and a total lack of informed decision making. Bill 212 will certainly fail to tackle the urban issues we are facing.

There is ample evidence that increasing lanes on roadways leads to an increase of traffic. It is an occurrence called induced demand and it has been historically observed when new lanes are built. Are Doug Ford and the PC’s consulting with professionals in Urban Planning in their infrastructural decisions? Bill 212 is corrupt and deeply misinformed. Bicycle lanes are needed in order to incentivize cycling which will in turn reduce traffic. The central reason there is too mach gridlock is because there are too many cars and a car-culture perpetuating it.

As a contributing member of the city of Toronto, I do not feel represented in this decision to remove bicycle lanes and relinquish control of planning decisions to the Province. Cyclists will be killed as a result, and Traffic will continue to worsen. The premier and his team need to urgently give their heads a shake.

Sincerely,
Concerned Citizen