I strongly disagree with…

I strongly disagree with both the removal of bike lanes and the building of highway 413 without environmental consultation.

Removing bike lanes will not improve traffic flow, and will only make cycling more dangerous. This is evident in decades of study in other cities in Europe, Canada and the United States. Bike lanes on side streets is not viable as Toronto is not a grid. I live around Dundas and McCaul and commute to Parkdale for work by bike, and I am unsure which side streets I am supposed to be using that run between Queen and Dundas. Additionally, from experience, sticking to side streets often requires one to make dangerous turns into busy streets downtown- when I visit my parent's home in the Junction area, sticking to back streets requires dangerous left and right turns into North-South streets with unmarked intersections. It is obvious that those suggesting this are not cyclists or urbanists, and merely dislike the appearance of bicycles on main streets. While cyclists are not the majority, I do not think our minority status should make us second-class road users, or our safety a low priority.

Cycling is the mode of transportation that makes the most sense in the downtown core for travelling short distances, and around 70% of Torontonians describe themselves as cyclists in some capacity. I have delighted in the past few years watching the number of cyclists on the road grow, and seeing the safety of the bike lane system allowing families with children to ride together, more elderly people on bikes, and seeing people with disabilities safely able to use recumbent bikes.

Additionally, I do not see the value in building highway 413 in our wetland areas without thorough environmental consultation. This appears to be a highway to nowhere that will cost more money and be more environmentally destructive than simply buying back the 407.

As a taxpayer and constituent of the Ontario government, I would prefer if the resources we are proposing to spend on the contents of this bill went towards improving our public transit system. Toronto's population is rapidly growing, and it is unreasonable to believe that the majority of the population should continue to rely on a private, often single-occupancy vehicle to travel in the city. The cause of gridlock is cars. Other large cities realize this and have built world-class public transit systems, and there is no reason we should be so far behind them- the last line of the TTC was built in 2002, when we had 4.9 million people. We now have 10 million. More cars off the road means that emergency services, delivery vehicles, tradespeople, disabled people, and families can get around the city faster.

Thank you for taking time to read this letter.