Dear Parliament, Bike lanes…

Dear Environmental Registry of Ontario,
Bike lanes are integral to a healthy city. I will first address this as mother and citizen of Toronto and then speak from my vantage point as a health researcher. Bike lanes allow my teenage children to travel on their own to their extracurricular sports practices, and other activities, without me having to drive them. They often travel by bike with several friends. This means that there are fewer cars on the road as none of us parents need to drive to and from practice--and back again for pick up. Fewer trips by car supports health by lowering emissions and easing gridlock. Also, safe road infrastructure, like the separated bike lanes that the Premier has said he wants to tear out, keep our kids alive and uninjured. We depend on these bike lanes for safety.
As a health researcher, I know that bike lanes support health by promoting active transit. People get to ride their bikes to work and exercise while getting there! Cycling is an enjoyable way to get around the city—as long as the safe bike lane infrastructure exists. We know from studies in Canada and from other counties that more and more people will choose to cycle if there are safe bike lanes. One study (Imani, Miller & Saxe, 2019) found that if people can get to work on safe bike infrastructure, the chance that they will choose to do so goes up by 40 percent. And since safe bike infrastructure gets people out of their cars, it means less air pollution, less gridlock and a generally happier and healthier city.
I ask that the Government of Ontario keep teens and other cyclists safe and prioritize everyone’s health and wellbeing and change direction on this legislation. Bill 212 will seriously endanger the lives of cyclists and contribute to more gridlock when, lacking safe bike infrastructure, people leave their bikes and return to their cars. Let’s choose health over death, injury, and gridlock.