Bill 212 is the wrong…

Bill 212 is the wrong decision for Ontario. This is a provincial overreach in municipal affairs that will negatively impact municipal planning decisions, and offers no benefit to residents. Bicycle lanes don't cause congestion: in fact, there is plenty of research to indicate the opposite (CBC News, 2024). Traffic lanes cause induced demand for car transportation, which will increase congestion because more people will be driving - not to mention the fact that if people have no safe choice other than to drive, the only choice they can make is to drive. If people have a safe and well-connected bicycle system, they will use it, which will reduce congestion on the road because people will happily use their bicycle to get around instead of their car. Cyclists are not a small minority of the population, and their numbers are growing. 13.5% of Torontonians cycle to work (Statistics Canada, 2022). Meanwhile, more cycling infrastructure has contributed to a substantial increase in cycling in Ottawa (City News, 2024). Not only that, cycling is a popular means of transportation and recreation for Ontario's tourists: in 2023, 58% of overnight visitors and 68% of day trippers included cycling in their agenda (Ontario By Bike Report, 2023). This should be taken as a sign that the people of Ontario want to ride bicycles - and I have yet to see the Ontario government offer a solid evidence base about why we should discourage them.

Preventing the installation of cycling infrastructure will not help drivers, but it will take choices away from Ontarians. The decision of where to put bicycle lanes is best left in the hands of the people who know their cities best: the planners and inhabitants who live there. When and where a city should install bicycle lanes is a relatively trivial decision that should not concern the Ontario Provincial Government.