Traffic congestion is a huge…

Traffic congestion is a huge problem in every major city across Ontario. Particularly in Toronto, with the 401 holding the record of busiest highway in North America, moving 450,000 people a day (beating Orange County, California at just 300,000 people/day). The only way to reduce this huge amount of traffic is not to build more lanes, but to instead take people who would rather not drive off the road.

Many people are stuck in cars because it is the only fast and safe way to get around the city. Providing bike lanes to those who would rather bike than drive takes them off the road and puts them in a safe and dedicated lane, rather than clogging up the roads with their own vehicle, or even worse, having a bike in the car lane slowing everyone down. Most people don't bike right now because they don't feel safe, as cars are going much faster and are a lot heavier, meaning that in a split second you can be killed as a cyclist on the road. Moving people into dedicated, separated, and protected lanes allows cars to drive at higher speeds without needing to worry about killing bicyclists.

Some may say that because a lane is lost, the traffic will get worse. However, often times, that is only true if you use it in unproductive ways, such as street parking. Street parking removes space from any form of transport, so the number of people who can travel the corridor is limited. If you instead swap a car lane for a bike lane, those that must drive (i.e. are from very far, elderly, physically disabled) will keep driving, but those that were too nervous to bike in the car lane and don't need to drive (i.e. shorter trips, e-bikes/delivery services, those who want to) are now are no longer driving, but biking. Biking is a much more efficient form of transportation, in that for a given road width of 3.5 metres, 19,000 people can move through it on bikes, while only 2,000 can move through it in cars, a 9.5x increase in transportation throughput.

This effect only gets stronger the more bike lanes there are. You can't plop a bike lane on a random street and expect immediate adoption of bikes, just like you can't pave a road in the middle of the tundra and wonder where all the drivers are. Bike lanes need to be connected, and the most integral component of this are main arterials that go across the city, such as Bloor Street. These connect to smaller bike lanes across the city, creating a network. For the vast majority of cyclists, even a single point where a cyclist is dumped onto the road along with cars will result in that person instead taking their car. Bike lanes that are not connected properly or adequately will therefore result in severe underuse. Removing these arterial lanes will make neuter the bike network and adoption of bikes as a form of transport, thereby significantly increasing traffic as the only viable alternative is to drive.

If you care about reducing traffic, getting people off the roads and into bicycles in their own lanes is the most effective way. This lets those who want to or need to drive actually get to where they are going in a reasonable time, rather than being hindered by a slow cyclist on the road, or much more likely, slowed down by a bunch of drivers who much rather be biking in the first place.