I do not like the government…

I do not like the government impeding on my freedom to get around my city. I do not appreciate the Brampton based minister of transportation making traffic planning decisions for Toronto or any other municipality. Toronto city council knows best where to install bikes and how to make its own traffic planning decisions. Due to the failure of the ministry of transportation, Toronto does not have a safe and adequate infrastructure for pedestrians, transit users, and motorists, let alone for cyclists. And 2024 is proving to be deadly for Toronto pedestrians and cyclists. This is a wrong headed move by the provincial government as other solutions would be more effective at reducing gridlock such as open the Eglington LRT and the Finch LRT, subsidize 407 tolls for commercial truck fleets, allow TTC and GO bus only lanes, extend the sidewalks, change the zoning rules to allow more density for residents and small, local business ventures; reduce the number of Uber, Lyft and other ride sharing drivers, remove on street parking on most roads, move the speed limit to 30 km/h, discourage single person occupancy vehicle use and apply road congestion pricing on over-sized personal vehicles such as SUVs and monster pickup trucks or limit the number of vehicles within certain city areas.

The government is being short sighted with this proposal and there may be negative and untintended consequences because they want to remove the bike lanes on Bloor, University, Eglinton, and Yonge streets. A significant number of cyclists in Toronto are car owners and instead of cycling to their destination, they will now use a car which will add to the congestion. And the cyclists that do not own a car, they are going to use these same roads where the bike lanes use to be anyways. Bloor, Yonge, University and Eglinton are primary destinations for work, shopping, entertainment for foot, transit and bicycle traffic, not just motor vehicles. Removing the bike lanes isn't going to deter bicycle use in Toronto. Getting around the city on foot, on transit, and by car are still terrible options.

The government is threatening the Toronto cycling community and they will organize and potentially impede rush hour traffic flow with protests. There have been numerous altercations with motorists and cyclists posted on social media this year and it could escalate in number of motorist/cyclist conflicts and degree of violence.

This bill will not relieve gridlock in the GTA. Toronto doesn't have a too many bicycles problem, it has a too many cars problem. There is no more space to build new roads for cars and adding more cars to a finite road system is counter-intuitive.
And where are the additonal cars going to park? Toronto is building new condos without underground parking over old parking lots and CafeTO restaurants are generating more revenue for the city than paid parking spots during the program, for example.

The government needs to listen to the traffic experts and look what other cities in the world are doing to successfully address their congestion problems. The government needs to give the streets and roads back to the people who work, shop, and live in Toronto instead of to cars.