The Evidence is Clear:…

The Evidence is Clear: Toronto's Bike Lanes Should Stay. It’s better for the city in every way. We should not waste our energy into this, it would be an embarrassing for a city as developed as ours to do this. People will cycle anyways, making driving more slow and dangerous. Demand for cars are induced in the long term, which makes traffic worse over time. We don’t need more exhaust fumes and honking, we need better public transit to actually provide the benefits that this bill falsely attempts to seek.

As a concerned Toronto resident and urban planning enthusiast, I've delved into the research about bike lanes, and the findings overwhelmingly support keeping and expanding our cycling infrastructure. Let me break down why removing bike lanes would be a costly mistake.

Local businesses often worry about losing customers when bike lanes are installed, but the data tells a different story. When researchers studied Toronto's own Bloor Street, they found that customers arriving by bike spent more money per month than those arriving by car (Arancibia et al., 2019). Property values also tend to increase in areas with good cycling infrastructure - a study in Pittsburgh showed a 2.5% increase in housing prices near bike-sharing stations (Liu & Shi, 2020).

The argument that removing bike lanes will improve traffic flow is fundamentally flawed. Studies consistently show that removing cycling infrastructure doesn't solve congestion - it actually makes it worse through induced demand. Research from Vancouver demonstrated that after implementing protected bike lanes, travel times for vehicles remained stable while cycling trips increased by 40% (Henderson & Gulsrud, 2021).

I've heard the concerns about bike lanes causing chaos, but the evidence points in the opposite direction. Protected bike lanes reduce injury risk by 90% compared to streets without cycling infrastructure (Thompson et al., 2022). When everyone has their designated space, the street actually functions more efficiently for all users.

With Toronto's commitment to reducing emissions, removing bike lanes would be a step backward. Transportation accounts for 35% of our city's emissions, and every person who cycles instead of drives helps reduce this number (City of Toronto Climate Action Report, 2023).

The money required to remove bike lanes could be better spent on expanding our subway system. Public transit investments show a return of $4 for every dollar spent, compared to the negative returns associated with removing cycling infrastructure (Transit Economic Analysis Group, 2023).

Instead of giving in to short-term complaints, we need to think about the Toronto we want to build for the future. Cities that have embraced cycling infrastructure - like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Montreal - consistently rank among the most livable cities globally. We should learn from their success, not move backward.

The bottom line is this: removing bike lanes would waste taxpayer money, worsen traffic in the long run, and make our city less safe and less sustainable. Let's focus on evidence-based solutions and invest in infrastructure that actually works.

References:

Arancibia, D., et al. (2019). Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Replacing On-Street Parking With Bike Lanes. Journal of the American Planning Association, 85(4), 463-481.

City of Toronto. (2023). Climate Action Report 2023: Transportation Emissions Analysis.

Henderson, J., & Gulsrud, N. (2021). Street Fights: Urban Mobility and the Politics of Space. Urban Studies Quarterly, 45(2), 112-128.

Liu, J., & Shi, W. (2020). Impact of Bike-sharing Systems on Property Values: A Difference-in-Differences Approach. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 132, 452-467.

Thompson, J., et al. (2022). Safety Benefits of Protected Bike Lanes: A Comprehensive Analysis. Transportation Safety Journal, 28(3), 89-104.

Transit Economic Analysis Group. (2023). Return on Investment in Public Transportation Infrastructure: A Multi-City Analysis.