I work at a traffic…

I work at a traffic engineering company, so I’ve got lots of experience with traffic patterns and historical traffic all around the GTA. As a result, I know that at most locations, traffic increases about 0.5% to 2% each year. And this makes sense: most areas of the GTA are increasing in population, and more people typically means more driving. As a result, many of the traffic studies that I do show that traffic is getting slightly worse each year.

It’s admirable that the government wants to fix this. However, I’d like to discuss the one area of the GTA that has already fixed this situation. This area does not have a positive growth rate in traffic, meaning that despite the increase in population, they aren’t facing ever-increasing congestion. This area is downtown Toronto. This might sound strange, considering that downtown does experience congestion. But my point here is that downtown Toronto is the only place where the data consistently shows growth in the neighbourhood in general, i.e. economic growth, building development, etc. without an increase in traffic. Everywhere else, new growth means new traffic and new congestion and there's no good end game when those two things are tied together.

This obviously raises the question of why downtown Toronto isn’t facing the year-over-year traffic growth that is threatening to cripple the GTA (and other parts of Ontario). The reason is that the other ways of getting around, like the subway, GO trains, walking, and biking, are actually good in downtown Toronto. The transit is good because it actually shows up more than once every 15 minutes, unlike in the rest of the GTA, and the long-distance transit actually travels fast. Walking is good because there are large sidewalks, narrow streets, and lots of storefronts, restaurants, entertainment venues, residences, and jobs all close together. All these destinations also makes biking good, along with the excellent Bike Share system and the protected bike infrastructure like the lanes you are currently targeting.

If you don’t want to trust me, then listen to any of the other transportation, engineering, and city planner experts. The Ontario Professional Planners Institute knows when and where bike lanes are appropriate, and they disagree with the proposed law. Professional Engineers Ontario knows when and where bike lanes are appropriate, and they disagree with the proposed law. The Ontario Traffic Council knows when and where bike lanes are appropriate, and they disagree with the proposed law. Why does the Conservative Party think they are more knowledgeable that these organizations?

Again, I very much appreciate that your party is willing to explore options, take action, and spend taxes to try to fix traffic. But government after government has tried to fix traffic and failed. In order to succeed in fixing traffic, you are going to need to work with knowledgeable experts and not push through ham-fisted, one-size-fits-all laws.