Hello there, I am adamantly…

Hello there,

I am adamantly opposed to the provincial government dictating what happens in a municipality when it comes to city planning.

Why should someone in Brampton weigh in on the city planning in Toronto?
Why would a legislator in Kingston know anything about what is needed in Windsor?
How would an official from Etobicoke have any sense about what downtown residents and business owners want?

1) Evidence
There is no evidence that bike lanes have affected car transit times in Toronto. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite as stated by Emergency Services and Toronto Fire. City of Toronto streets are congested due to more cars than they are built to support. For evidence that demonstrates bike lanes are not the cause of backups on Yonge St, see Yonge St. north of Lawrence, a portion of Yonge St. without bike lanes, is constantly backed up (I have pictures).

2) Local residents and businesses support the lanes
Local businesses, community members, local politicians and urban planners support these bike lanes. They were implemented after MANY years of community consultation and study. There are literally thousands of hours of direct consultation that have informed these plans. The lanes are working. Businesses and residents are supportive. We are not focused on building what 'through traffic' wants. We build for local residents and businesses.

3) Precedent
One distant level of government intervening in the careful planning of another level of government sets a dangerous precedent. Surely the Provincial government doesn't want to set a precedent and expose themselves to a higher level of government intervening in its careful planning.

4) Experts
Local experts and expert city planners around the world are in support of protective infrastructure on lanes on roads. What information does the Minister from Brampton have that contradicts global consensus?

5) Mandate
The ridings that these lanes are in voted for different parties in the last election. They do not subscribe to the 'cars first' mentality of the majority party. The government does not have a mandate to overrule the wishes of the residents that these ridings represent.

6) Liability
The province would be taking on significant, direct liability by directing well-planned infrastructure designed to protect vulnerable road users. Every accident, injury and fatality will be 100% directly attributable to this ill-advised action.

The City of Toronto is not like Etobicoke, Brampton or Vaughan. We don't see roads as car-centric thoroughfares. We believe in streets that support and protect all road users.

The wishes of the car commuters who want to 'pass-through' does not deserve more weight than the wishes of the local communities.

We reject this overreach by the Province.