Imagine driving if roads…

Imagine driving if roads were independent segments that ended before you could get to work or to the pharmacy. That’s the biggest challenge to Ontarians who bike or wish to lead healthier, active lifestyles by biking to more places. Few people feel comfortable biking on roads without protected bike lanes, so any trip that involves braving the deadly roads for any significant distance is unlikely to be done by bike altogether. This is why the piecemeal bike lanes Ontario has are underutilized.

Ontario cities do not need more drivers — it’s clear that Ontario cities have enough car traffic. This is why investments in more space-efficient travel methods like transit and cycling are important. There’s two things that will solve traffic for real: finishing higher-order transit projects like the Eglinton Crosstown and the Ontario Line, and stitching together a truly connected and inviting bike network to entice drivers to travel by transit and micromobility. GO Transit was originally designed to woo drivers out of their cars to keep congestion down, and wooing drivers out of their cars is a strategy Ontario can use again.

Removing bike lanes will only, at most, add one car lane per direction. Not only is that very little help for drivers, it’ll be quickly filled up as the new lanes invite more driving activity and former cyclists become more cars on the road. In short order, congestion will be back to where it was. Not to mention the congestion that the process of removing bike lanes will cause.

The way the bill doesn’t discriminate between main roads and side streets will create unnecessary red tape for bike lanes that will remove a car lane on a side street. I have commuted by bus many times on a side street where new bike lanes replaced car lanes, and traffic is not a problem at all. Some streets were simply overbuilt, and needing the province to acknowledge this every time a municipality wants to remove unnecessary car lanes is, well, unnecessary. In these cases, I’d like to see the province help municipalities better protect new cycling infrastructure with concrete safety barriers and raised transit stops.

Some streets would even be safer for drivers if bike lanes were added. Many four-lane streets with frequent uncontrolled intersections and driveways could be improved with a “road diet”. Due to the number of intersections and driveways, their inner lanes often see stopped cars waiting to turn left. These waiting cars are at risk of being rear-ended by those using the inner lane to pass. Being stopped, they also reduce the productivity expected of the additional driving lane. In a road diet, one car lane would be removed from each direction, a two-way centre turning lane would be added, and a one-way bike lane would be added to each side. Drivers waiting to turn left would get a safer place to wait, and at four-way uncontrolled intersections, wouldn’t have their view obstructed by cars waiting to turn left from the opposite direction. Traffic throughput wouldn’t be affected very much, again because the inner lanes kept getting clogged by drivers waiting to turn left.

As someone who travels primarily by bus and by foot, I know this act will not save me time. For aforementioned reasons, relief from congestion will be temporary. Buses may see more crowding, and I will have to watch out for more sidewalk cyclists when I walk on sidewalks too narrow for both of us.

To conclude, Ontario cities already have enough drivers. The solution to traffic is wooing drivers out of their cars by completing higher-order transit projects and stitching together Ontario’s piecemeal bike lanes. Indiscriminately banning bike lanes that remove car lanes is adding unneeded red tape to projects that could improve road safety without hurting traffic throughput. Removing bike lanes would only provide temporary relief at most before drivers become less careful about avoiding traffic and start crowding the roads with reclaimed lanes.