Dear sir or madam. I am a…

Dear sir or madam. I am a civil engineer. As a professional working in transportation, I strongly disagree with this governments approach to transportation infrastructure. There are several reasons why the approach is flawed.

1. It will not address congestion. If we want to address congestion on our roads, we needs to provide transportation options. Giving people the freedom to choose how they move through their community should be a value we can all support. Much of the infrastructure we have built in the past 50+ years has removed options, creating neighbourhoods that are completely dependent on cars. This is not about going to war with cars. They have their place in our transportation toolbox. But living with car dependency creates enormous burdens on individuals and forces everyone onto our roads in a car, thus making congestion an inevitability.

2. It is fiscally irresponsible. The cost to the public to support car dependency is enormous and financially unsustainable. In older areas, like Toronto, Hamilton or Peterborough, there is the possibility of creating transportation options and lowering the cost to the public and the individual of our infrastructure. The expansion of bike lanes has been a low cost and effective way of reducing congestion and providing safe alternatives.

3. Safety. There are many parts of the city that do not have safe cycling routes, and people still use them at extreme personal risk. Look at Dupont St. While placing bike lane on calm residential streets is preferable (e.g., Shaw St, Palmerston, Wellington), the layout of our streets doesn't alway afford this. Show me an alternative north-south path that would stand in for Yonge St's bike lanes. So we have to work with what we have and make safety a priority on these streets.

This government's politicization of infrastructure is disappointing. No body wins. Not drivers. Not cyclists. Not pedestrians. Not Torontonians. Not folks in the 905.