As traffic engineers have…

As traffic engineers have long known and American cities periodically rediscover at their great expense, increasing road space to any feasible degree doesn't reduce congestion. To reduce congestion you need to get as many cars off the road as possible to free up space for the people who absolutely have to drive. The way to get cars off the road is to provide excellent alternatives that as many people can use instead. Every person taking public transportation or riding a bicycle is a person who is not in a car taking up all of that road capacity. Every person taking a Go train to their destination is a person who is not taking up highway space.

Running Metrolinx effectively so that the Eglinton Crosstown would finally come into service would do more to reduce Toronto congestion than any amount of removing bicycle lanes. Removing bicycle lanes and preventing new ones will only increase congestion across Toronto, as the people who are currently bicycling will either start driving or start taking up more space on shared roads. People do not vanish when you remove their current means of transportation; they shift to other means.

Building more Go lines and operating more attractive Go service would do more to reduce commuter traffic on our highways than building another one, which will just fill up again. Building highways through the Greenbelt destroys more of Ontario's limited good farmland and ultimately wastes taxpayer money.

The bike lane portions of this bill are also fundamentally undemocratic. Toronto voters have expressed their views about bike lanes through their elected city council representatives; that is local government making decisions about local government activities. Now the provincial government is overriding those views, the views of the people who live in this city. Our democratic voices do not matter to the Premier; Toronto's views are to be actively stomped on by MPs who do not represent any of those voters.