IN 2017, Doug Ford said the…

IN 2017, Doug Ford said the following: "You’re nervous when there’s no bike lanes. At least I was. We have to do everything we can to make sure three’s never a death in the city. One death is way too many when it comes to bicycle riders." I'm sure I won't be the only commenter to remind the government of this very sensible statement, made by Ford after actually cycling on Toronto streets.

Apparently Premier Ford has a short memory, and has decided it's now perfectly fine to sacrifice cyclists to one of his favourite voting blocks: car drivers. (The other, it seems, is heavy drinkers.) Yet again, this government has decided to override local democratic planning processes via a dictatorial central-planning regime that fails to honour painstakingly researched municipal decision-making, and then downloads all of the costs for this provincial interference onto the city. An incredible and completely unnecessary waste of resources!

I am both a cyclist and a driver; I cycle year-round and mainly use the downtown bicycle lanes parallel to the Queen and King Street corridors. Anything to stay off the deadly main automobile arteries, where the cyclist is squeezed between parked cars and moving traffic, and is relegated to the worst-maintained parts of the road. Every time I'm on my bike, it means I am not driving a car and slowing down traffic. In addition to keeping cyclists relatively safe from automotive traffic, bicycle lanes encourage cycling, thereby alleviating congestion.

This is not just a political disagreement. Cyclists are killed every year on Toronto's roads because they are simply unsafe. (I myself have a permanent metal implant from a serious injury caused by a careless driver.) This in turn discourages cycling, which in every other way is a better option, cutting down on local pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing traffic congestion, and benefiting cyclists through vigourous exercise. Not everyone will be able to cycle to work or school, but we need to do everything we can to encourage cycling, and that includes making sure it's a safe method of transportation.

Doug Ford has spent much too much of his time in office dictating to the municipality of Toronto from the Premier's office. Let Toronto's elected representatives do their jobs. Let cyclists ride safely. Leave the bike lanes alone.