I am an avid cyclist in the…

I am an avid cyclist in the city of Toronto and have been for 5 years since moving to this city. Cycling in my day to day routine, whether it be for running errands, my commute to my office, or purely for leisure, has improved my experience in this city ten fold. This is because I am a safe, reliable cyclist that follows all traffic laws and actively uses the developed bike lanes in the city of Toronto that my tax dollars went to funding, a statement that can be echo’d by the vast majority of active cyclists in our great city.

This decision to remove bike lanes by our Premier is misguided, ill thought, and will put more people in harms way while doing nothing to fix the driving conditions in the downtown core.

Plain and simple: we, as cyclists, are being scapegoated by a man that lives hours away from our neighbourhoods, does NOT participate in the day to day of this city, and is hell bent on demolishing things that aren’t actively putting money in his pocket.

Instead of using our tax dollars to fund better conditions for unhoused people, for addicts, or people struggling with mental health, you’re using it to scrap a proven improvement to the city, just to come back in 3-5 years and ask once again: “what can we possibly do about this gridlock problem in Ontario?”.

Instead of introducing licensing measures for unregistered electric scooters and e-bikes swerving between traffic and committing infractions every second they’re on the road, you target safe, reliable infrastructure.

I do hope a logical, level headed council can determine a date for public comment so cyclists can finally have their voices heard, not ran off the road once again. Thank you for your time.