Reducing the amount of bike…

Reducing the amount of bike lanes will reduce the number of people who are opting to use active transportation. Community members of all ages are more likely to walk and bike when they are supported by infrastructure like bike lanes to do so. Additionally, requiring municipalities to seek provincial approval for bike lane implementation (even just when that implementation removes a lane of motor vehicle traffic) will add red tape bureaucracy that the current Provincial Government wants to avoid, and will ultimately reduce the number of municipalities implementing these traffic calming, health-promoting, and environmentally-friendly measures. Adding lanes of motor vehicle traffic, whether on highways or in municipalities, does not reduce traffic and driving times - it induces traffic by promoting driving, and increases the likelihood of motor vehicle crashes.
Driving motor vehicles rather than taking active or public transportation is not more convenient. It is just more comfortable and normalized. The Province has the opportunity to support eco-friendly and healthy transportation for our communities, and it is demonstrating that with its investments and stated commitments to increasing train transit around Ontario. If safe bike lanes are not maintained and added to our streets, the Province will contradict its own investments, and instead make Ontario a less safe, less healthy, less environmentally-friendly place to live.