Hello, I am a married 60…

Hello, I am a married 60-year-old mother of three adult children who lives and works in Midtown Toronto. Our family owns two cars and many bicycles. We often ride our bicycles in the protected bike lanes and other bike lanes to do local errands and commute to school and work downtown. In our case, this helps to ease congestion as we typically only take our cars if we need to transport things like groceries or hockey bags or if we need to travel further afar. I believe that the bike lanes along Bloor, University and Young Street save lives. Several years ago my middle child was hit by a car that swerved into a non-protected bike lane. thankfully he was not seriously injured only bruised, although his bike was destroyed. I have another son who commutes downtown using the bloor street and university bike lanes as he works in the financial district. These bike lanes are essential to his safe commute. It is not possible to get where we need to go only using side streets. Without protected by lanes, I personally would not feel safe and would end up driving my car thus contributing to the traffic congestion. Thank you for your consideration