We live in the Etobicoke…

We live in the Etobicoke area. The bike lanes were installed and implemented to the best of my knowlege with minimal or NO consultation. The first we heard is when the city sent our flyers that looked like it was consultation but in fact was just informing us what they were doing.
Since these bike lanes have been implemented, traffic on all the side streets has increased DRAMATICALLY. Speeding through the neighbourhoods to avoid the grid lock on Bloor has made streets that we all walk on dangerous to cross. I watch people sprint across the roads as many of the cars cutting through are not aware of all the stop signs. What was once a 5 minute drive to the highway has been increased to 15-20 on a good day. The confusing and constantly changing lines on the roadways to adjust to Cafe Toronto are also contributing to the confusion and chaos.
Once the bike lanes were implemented nothing changed to accommodate right hand turns onto South Kingsway which leads to even more unnecessary gridlock. Bike lanes are amazing if they are done correctly. Toronto had the opportunity to do it right and instead did it as fast as possible. One interesting fact is the Queens University uses the poor traffic planning in TO as a case study for the Civil Engineering traffic engineering class. Having 2 out of our 3 boys as Civil Engineers they continually point out intersections in Toronto that were used as examples of poor Urban Traffic planning.