I think the provincial…

I think the provincial government's proposal to introduce a bill which not only limits the construction of new bike lanes but also threatens to remove existing ones is an absurd overreach of power. These kinds of decisions should be left to cities. Not only that, the premise upon which the bill is based is nonsensical. Removing bike lanes will not solve gridlock - the only way to do that is to remove cars from the road, and create alternate ways for people to move around the city. Biking is one way of doing this, and the safer we make bike infrastructure the more people will feel comfortable adopting this as a way of commuting. The city has seen a huge increase in the number of people and drivers in the last decade, and we won't be able to able to solve this issue by building ever more lanes. As traffic engineers are well aware, "induced demand" will always be a problem - the more lanes you build, the more people will decide to drive. Building bike lanes, on the other hand, is a hugely efficient way of moving people around, and it has a host of environmental benefits. Removing cars from the road removes the pollution they create, which results in cleaner air and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Also, car tires are a huge source of microplastics from their tires. And cars also wear out our roads faster (by several orders of magnitude) than bicycles do, because of the huge difference in mass between cars and bikes. I think that if this bill is passed it will have negative consequences for the environment, our infrastructure, and ultimately the safety of road users.