Requiring provincial…

Requiring provincial approval of bike lanes is not only wild over-reach into municipal affairs; it is also entirely unproductive. There is abundant evidence for the phenomenon of "induced demand": additional lanes on roads lead, over a period of a few years, to more traffic. Meanwhile additional bike lanes lead to more cyclists on the road. It is important to note that this effect on cycling has been found in places like Montreal, that are colder and hillier than many Ontario cities including Toronto. There's no reason we can't do it here.

Some studies found new bike lanes in Toronto added a couple of minutes of commute time, when comparing a mid-pandemic baseline to the present. Leaving aside the validity concerns of the methodology, it is simply asinine to claim that those few minutes are deeply meaningful to commuters or that this impact outweighs the benefits of safer active transport.

We don't need more lanes for traffic. We don't need more highways. We need major investment into public transit and cycling infrastructure within cities and across regions. I commuted between Hamilton and Toronto by train regularly for years--but if I took a job in Guelph, Waterloo, or other regional cities, I would be in yet another vehicle jamming the highways instead. Now I work in Hamilton and commute by bicycle--but if the safe lanes that I rely on are removed, I'll be in yet another vehicle clogging the roads.

Drivers win when fewer people are on the road. So rather than building more driving lanes, let's focus on getting people out of cars and into public and active transport. There simply isn't a rationale for imposing restrictions on bike lanes beyond cheap political points-scoring.