Car traffic in Toronto has…

Car traffic in Toronto has grown, but so has bike, e-bike, and scooter traffic. Many people in this city make their livings on two-wheeled vehicles: bike couriers and food delivery workers. These folks also use bike lanes wherever they are available and their jobs are made safer because of it. My teenage daughter commutes to work using her bike on bike lanes. Her safety would be severely compromised without bike lanes. Additionally, many people, myself included, choose cycling as an efficient and healthy way to commute and get around the city.

I also have a car and I also drive around the city. I prefer to have bike lanes and have all the two-wheeled vehicles in a separate lane where possible. Traffic for both cars and two-wheeled vehicles moves more efficiently and safely with bike lanes. Instead of bikes having to weave in and out of traffic, slowing cars and creating safety risks, they are in a separate lane.

If a car trip does at times happen to take a little bit longer due to a bike lane, so be it. With all due respect, people’s lives are worth more than shaving a few minutes off a car driver’s travel time. Bike lanes save lives!

If you really want to tackle traffic congestion in the city there are many other factors at play that could be addressed. Taking bike lanes away is unnecessary and reckless. Requiring cities to go begging the provincial government for permission to build more bike lanes is entirely unreasonable and usurps what should be a purely municipal decision, and will only serve to block the expansion of the bike lane network in the city. Ripping up existing bike lanes… a complete waste of taxpayers’ dollars.

I could go on about all the benefits of creating cities that are safer for cyclists, but many, many others have already studied and written about this issue, and found many benefits to a city having separate bike lanes. The Ford government has cited no data to support its purported rationale for ripping up bike lanes and blocking new ones.

Back in 2017, Premier Ford publicly acknowledged how much safer he felt cycling in a bike lane!!

Please reconsider and withdraw this misguided, interfering, hostile and dangerous bill. Please do not disregard the safety of all those who currently use bike lanes and the benefit to Toronto and other cities of having more people cycle once they realize that there is an established network of bike lanes.

In summary: I am 100% opposed to this bill and ask that the government withdraw it. If there are legitimate problems caused by any existing bike lanes, then assess and address those issues. Do not throw out the baby with the bath water!!!!