Bike lanes are under…

Bike lanes are under municipal jurisdiction because they are built to serve the people of the municipality. The Ontario Government's proposal to impose provincial interference in the construction of bike lanes comes as the latest in a long line of efforts to force municipal governments (especially those representing large cities) to make transportation decisions that cater not to the people of the municipality, but for people living outside of the municipality, who wish to be able to drive straight from their front doors in the suburbs to the hearts of our cities without being inconvenienced by those of us who live along the way.

There's a problem with this policy direction, though, which is that people DO live along the way. Furthermore, those people pay the property taxes that build and support the infrastructure that you wish to co-opt on behalf of suburbanites who contribute nothing to our city but smog and congestion. Strong-arming municipalities into spending our tax dollars to subsidize the convenience of non-residents at the expense of our quality of life is the paragon of authoritarianism.

It's also well-known that adding vehicle lanes does not improve congestion (I've linked studies). However, if you're interested in actual solutions, I have suggestions! Firstly, encourage those residing in satellite communities around major urban centres to try out our public transit systems. In my home city of Toronto, parking lots at TTC stations like Victoria Park and Kipling sit at half capacity all day, while the commuters for whom they were built blame cyclists for the congestion that they themselves produce. Additionally, you can encourage all those that lament the existence of the seemingly unused bike lanes while sitting in an endless line of traffic to do something unimaginably radical: get a bike! Those lanes seem empty because they allow the bikes within them to traverse our urban centres at speeds drivers can't even imagine. There is nothing stopping the vast majority of drivers from choosing to cycle instead. Even the aforementioned suburbanites could simply toss their bike into the back of their Ford F-250 Superduty Offroad 4x4 Military-Grade pickup truck that they somehow feel is suitable for daily use in an urban setting, drive to one of the vast commuter lots our tax dollars make available for them, and cycle from there.

In short: our cities are for the people that live in them. They are not for you to wrestle from us with heavy-handed policy designed to pander to the blue-voting regions that view urban centres like theme parks built for their entertainment. Diversity of transit options is the only way forward; taking away our freedom of choice helps no one.