The proposal to remove bike…

The proposal to remove bike lanes works against all the environmental goals of the province and will be ineffective and expensive according to the majority or research on the subject. The government has provided no actual basis for their claims that it will improve traffic time where as there have been numerous pieces of research around similar projects in large cities all over the world which consistently show that bike lanes increase traffic flow, decrease the number of collisions (not only with cyclists but with all users of the road) and provide increased economic activity in the corridor they are installed in.

By removing the bike lanes, you are making it more difficult for people to make the decision to use cycling as their primary mode of transportation. It forces more people back into cars which pushes us away from our climate goals. It also adds more cars to the road which increase congestion. Additionally, adding lanes does not ease congestion in most cases unless you are also addressing the intersections. In fact, in some cases adding lanes cause more issue due to vehicles moving between lanes unpredictably.

A third documented impact of adding additional lanes is that it increase the cases of speeding in off peak times which again make it more dangerous for all users of the road. This increase in danger is felt most by pedestrians and cyclists who do not have any form of protection from cars and the increase in speed makes these collisions highly likely to be deadly to those outside the vehicle.

In summary this measure,
- will make it more dangerous for all road users
- will reduce the number of people who choose active transport
- is unlikely to reduce travel times based on the vast majority of scholarly research
- will increase the carbon emissions due to the increase of motor vehicles
- will cost us money both in the short term to do the work and long term for maintenance.