The update to Bill 212 that…

The update to Bill 212 that would see the province weighing in on the creation of proposed bike lanes and the insistence on the removal of existing bike lanes in municipalities throughout Ontario is irresponsible and damaging to public safety, traffic management, environment and health outcomes, and street level business access.

Bike lanes on Bloor, Yonge, and University help move a large number of people of all ages through the core of the city in a safe and efficient manner. As someone who drives, cycles, walks, takes transit and uses taxis/ride hailing apps, the existence of bike lanes do not negatively impact my travel experience. In fact, they enhance it. Bike lanes contribute to a healthier city, lowering greenhouse gas emissions. When I cycle along Bloor, I am able to hop on and off my bike, visiting and spending money at multiple businesses along my route, allowing me to feel connected to the neighbourhoods I ride through. Multiple Business Improvement Associations and the small businesses that make up their membership like their bike lanes and see the positive financial difference they make to their bottom line. Business is already so precarious right now and removing the lanes and the ensuing construction that will entail, will affect them negatively and needlessly.

Bike lanes also safer for cyclists and pedestrians. With dedicated bike lanes, there are fewer collisions between cyclists and vehicles. There are also fewer collisions with pedestrians on sidewalks when there's a dedicated bike lane. Is it perfect? No, but it is much better with bike lanes than without. Removing bike lanes will ensure that needless deaths and life-altering injuries will occur in greater numbers. I don't know how a government can decide that increasing the number of citizens who will receive death or life-altering injury in exchange for increased drivers on the road is an acceptable price to pay.

Multiple studies have shown that increasing lanes of traffic doesn't reduce traffic, it creates more traffic. More rush hour gridlock, more traffic accidents, more congestion on streets. The idea that removing these bike lanes will speed up travel times by a significant margin is an incorrect assumption. Traffic in the main road corridors of Bloor, Yonge and University have increased due to two factors: population increase in the city of Toronto and the rise of ride-share apps/private transportation companies. The population of the city has grown significantly since 2016 when the first Bloor bike lane was installed as a pilot project. In addition to the population increase, the bike lane installation coincided with the rise in ride sharing apps. There are now 92,000 licensed Uber drivers in Toronto, many who operate in the downtown core and who circle the main arteries of Bloor, Yonge and University waiting for a fare. According to this report from the City of Toronto, ride sharing along the University and Bloor corridor contributed to 14% of their daily traffic.

With hybrid work from home, there are also food delivery people who use the bike lanes extensively as their main route to deliver food to customers throughout the city. Without the existence of these bike lanes, those Uber Eats drivers will travel with vehicular traffic or ditch the e-bikes in favour of cars for safety. Traffic is congested on Bloor, University and Yonge DESPITE the presence of bike lanes, not because of them, and without them traffic will actually be worse. That 14% of daily traffic along those corridors will likely rise.

This bill is called the "Saving You Time" act but that will not be the case for all citizens. Instead, the wording of Bill 212 is clearly biased towards drivers over all other citizens of the province, favouring this one subset of the population (drivers of motor vehicles) over cyclists, pedestrians, and those taking public transport. If the province was serious about saving the time spent in transportation for all citizens, it would invest more heavily in public transportation which would reduce the reliance on ride sharing and reduce the traffic pressure from the main arteries where the province wants to remove bike lanes, creating a truly efficient transport system that works for all.

Finally, in addition to the price to the environment and citizen safety, the financial cost of removing these existing bike lanes without truly studying the impact of doing so is financially reckless. Let the bike lanes stay.