To whom it may concern, I…

To whom it may concern,

I have significant concerns with Bill 212 for serveral reasons - the ones I will highlight in this comment are concerns about the planned regulatory changes around bike lanes and the exemption of Highway 413 from environmental assessments.

The intention to 1) remove key bike lanes and 2) require the Minister to approve any new bike lanes that would remove a lane of traffic is misguided and ignorant. Bike lanes have emerged as a key piece of infrastructure that keep cyclists safe, and give drivers more confidence (separating cyclists from cars - it's safer for everybody!). The 1.2% statistic put forward by this government is fully incorrect - we have data on how many people ride bikes where bike lanes have been installed, and the numbers are much higher. I would encourage this government to actually review current data, and not use incorrect statistics to support bad policy.

I personally ride my bike - to work, to play sports, to get places that are less well-served by transit (like the beach), to ride on trails, and to meet friends. I don't ride my bike every day, but it's an important option that I have. Removing bike lanes will take this option away from me, because I won't feel safe riding on the road without a bike lane. This bill is states that it will reduce gridlock and save "you" time, but what it's actually going to lead to is far more people choosing to drive when we could have actually biked. This will lead to FAR more gridlock and will cause more traffic than we already have.

Cities have actually done studies to understand this, and we know that gridlock in cities like Toronto is actually caused by 1) more people living in the city, and 2) the massive amounts of construction causing routes to be closed and redirected. It's not bike lanes. Again, bike lanes are getting more people out of their cars - bike lanes are helping to reduce gridlock and save us time.

Removing bike lanes will also be a massive waste of taxpayer money. The province has promised to foot the bill for municipalities to remove bike lanes. I am a citizen of a municipality, but I am also a citizen of Ontario. MILLIONS of our tax dollars are going to be spent on ripping up perfectly good roads, wasting all of the staff time that went into planning and installing the infrastructure in the first place. This is a disgusting waste of money and I find it completely offensive. Not to mention the months and months of time it will take to remove them, causing MORE TRAFFIC. I don't understand where the government's head is at in proposing this legislation. It doesn't make any sense once you actually look at the cost, and the implications.

Once these key bike lanes - Bloor, Yonge and University - are removed (leading to gridlock, massive waste of taxpayer money, and unnecessary deaths), cities will need to get Ministerial approval to ever build a bike lane again. I think the Minister has better things to do then to personally remove and reject or approve bike lanes. It is unacceptable to me that this would be the only way to approve new bike lanes - what this will do is effectively ban bike lanes. Again, people will die. More people will drive, causing more and more gridlock. Where is the logic?

Moving on from bike lanes, this omnibus bill would exempt the Highway 413 project from environmental approvals. How is this allowed??! This is embarassing and will lead to so much destruction of valuable and important natural heritage. We are in a climate crisis, and destroying natural spaces drastically reduces our ability to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. I don't understand how this highway project can be exempt from our own laws. We are not in a "highway emergency" and yet the governnment is treating the highway like emergency measures (i.e. exempting it from respecting the law) are needed. I will be so deeply disappointed if this legislation passes as is. Please ensure the highway project is required to go through environmental assessments. This is just another way to erode our Greenbelt and it is unacceptable.

Thank you.