There was a comment about …

There was a comment about "people who do not have access to a personal vehicle".

Our family has two cars and we choose to bike for transportation. We would like to be a one car family, but public transit is too unreliable in Ottawa.

I bike to work crossing the 417 except Cyrville, all of the highway crossings east of the Max Keeping bridge are not designed for bikes and are also dangerous for pedestrians. Innes lacks even a sidewalk! St. Laurent has pedestrians dangerously crossing high-speed slip lanes. This is not safe for people walking or people on bikes and is a liability for people driving cars.

My wife would like to bike to work at Ogilvie and Blair, but is scared of all the highway crossings from our home near Smyth and St. Laurent. Public transit takes too long and is unreliable, so she drives.

I worked as a nurse at the Smiths Falls Hospital for two years as I wanted to work in rural healthcare. I picked Smiths Falls as it was accessible to Via Rail. Schedules never lined-up and fares were too high, so I bought a second car in hopes that service would improve. It only got worse. After two years, I gave up and took a job at the Montfort Hospital - still a medium-sized hospital and I could bike.

Widening highways like the 417 are proven to cause infused demand and more gridlock, the opposite of what your stated objective is. It also increases smog, urban heat and worsens public health and the lives of Ontarians. Better public transit reduces it and cost less money. Bike infrastructure is even cheaper.

Biking and quality public transit is the way of the future. Our roads are already too clogged with cars. Please make urban public transit (OC Transpo), inter-urban public transit (Via Rail) and active transportation more reliable. The modes of transit are also better for our health and make life more affordable for Ontarians.