I'm writing as a mother and…

I'm writing as a mother and as an urban planner to implore the provincial government to take a longer, evidence-based perspective on the matters addressed by Bill 212.

Decades of urban planning experiments globally have proven that you get what you build. If we continue to house people in urban outskirts with no choice but to drive, and excelerate highways to connect them, then when they reach dense urban destinations there simply isn't enough room. Investment in transit is key, but the timeframes are so long. With Toronto being the fastest growing city in North America (with more cranes in the sky than the next 13 cities combined!) we cannot afford to wait 15 years for the next provincial transit project to be operational.

Bike lanes are literally buying you time to address congestion right now by giving people transportation options while we continue to build out a transit system that will be the enduring lifeline of such a rapidly growing city.

Removing cycling infrastructure will put thousands of lives at risk on a daily basis for people that have come to rely on cycling as a safe and efficient means of transportation. And for what, to get another few hundred cars stuck in traffic? In the voice of George and Karen Amaro who's 23 year old daughter Alex was killed while cycling on Dufferin Street, "We don’t want just motorists to get home to their families faster, we want everybody to get home to their families."

Please, work with your local municipalities to take meaningful action on congestion and introduce changes that have proven to be impactful. Removing bike lanes will only increase car dependency and put lives at risk.

I've attached below the letters from The Ontario Society of Professional Planners, The Association of Ontario Municipalities, The Ontario Traffic Council and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers as well as the letter from 120 physicians and researchers and Toronto City Council all condemning this Bill. I listened to the countless testimonials at Queen's Park yesterday including planners, families who have lost loved ones who never wanted to politicize their loss, and MPPs stating that they have never witnessed a greater opposition to a single piece of legislation. I've also attached the study contracted by Environmental Defence that shows how subsidizing freight vehicles to incentivize use of the under-utilized Hwy 407 would provide a much more immediate and fiscally prudent option to improve congestion on the 401, one of the world's busiest highways.

If our government is going to claim to tackle such an impactful problem, PLEASE listen to the professionals and work on real evidence based solutions that will have real impact, instead of imposing a cheap scapegoat that will put lives at risk and inhibit the ability of cities to actually address their congestion problems.

With expectation that this message will be heard alongside all of the advise of the professionals who have been working hard for decades to bring provincial policy statements into action through municipal scale solutions.