As a tax payer and property…

As a tax payer and property owner in the City of Toronto who drives a car, uses transit to get to work, and cycles to/from my home and parks for recreation, this legislation will make it far more difficult to get active and move safely in the city.

As a Registered Professional Planner and a transportation planning expert, I reiterate the words of my colleagues in saying that banning bike lanes on busy corridors will worsen congestion, worsen transportation affordability, and worsen emissions in our communities. With the majority of trips under a few km long, bike lanes provide a safe and separate space for kids and adults to move through their community without the need to drive and find parking in the city. But they only work when homes and destinations are connected, and safe, and not when infrastructure is downgraded to appease non-residents who refuse to accommodate others. We are not talking about banning cars, simply balancing space so that everyone can move safely, but it seems this nuance is lost in the discussion.

Finally, if the province is serious about solving congestion, then an order of magnitude increase in transit funding is required to increase operating capacity, complete existing rapid transit projects, accelerate the building of new lines, and activate additional regional rail corridors (such as the midtown and uptown rail corridors) to provide cross-regional transit access parallel to Highway 401 and 407, connecting jobs and homes without the need for a car. In a growing region, the only solution to congestion is reducing the number of cars on the road, and in a sprawling region, this solution is only possible through rapid regional rail, with corridors that move through the city and not just converge at Union Station (while important) as data shows a significant percentage of trips start and end across the suburbs.