This is a foolish, ill…

This is a foolish, ill-advised proposal. More lanes beget more gridlock, and while the government of Ontario can keep adding more lanes to the 401 and new highways outside the city, there is a finite amount of room they can keep expanding car lanes to within the city, where the worst of Toronto gridlock is.

I've lived and cycled in Toronto for many years, and the bike lanes, including the one on Bloor St, were part of my daily commute, and I have, in general, felt extremely unsafe on my bike in Toronto, save for the few times I've been able to ride in separated bike lanes. As car driving culture grows increasingly hostile of bicycle users, separated bike lanes keep people safe. Invest in bike lanes, and people will use them. Take them down and you put more people in gridlock, sitting in cars. People on bikes will be hit and killed more often because of this bill.

Beyond bike lanes, I disprove of this entire bill. The government of Ontario knows that this bill will not reduce gridlock or save anyone time, except for this government's ability to expropriate shared land faster to sell off to Doug Ford's friends. The government should not be allowed to violate environmental laws by being exempt from environmental assessments.

Leave the municipal planning of municipal streets (which are NOT provincial highways, though the government might like to make them such) to the municipalities that govern them. Don't turn back the small bit of progress we have made. Think about the future beyond the one lane you're going to get back from endangering cyclists, and invest in real people-moving infrastructure like public transit that is the actual, proven way to reduce gridlock. For shame.