I’m a commuter cyclist who…

I’m a commuter cyclist who relies on safe infrastructure for bikes to stay financially and physically healthy. My husband and I both work full time and we have a four-year-old daughter. We have one car and cannot afford two — we solve this by each cycling in to work most days, which also serves as our “gym” time since we have barely any free time and could not otherwise get in enough exercise.

I’m one of many people in Ottawa that can say this based on our last transportation survey — where cycling was by far the fastest-growing mode of transportation in 2022 https://engage.ottawa.ca/11511/widgets/45934/documents/132565

Conservatives like the PC government claim to care about affordability challenges for young working people, but when we make things work by cutting down on the most expensive asset and liability people have (automobiles) Doug Ford and his conservative base that skews older do everything in their power to stop us. It’s vile hypocrisy and I will be calling it out. I’ve never campaigned for a political party but this has inspired me to do so in the next provincial election.

Care about traffic congestion? Cut down on street parking for busy streets, as even one person parking there can eliminate a full lane of traffic. Invest in public transit. Make the bike lane networks more connected, as this is the needed tipping point for induced demand. Let the cities work with their data to do things that make sense. Personally, I have never seen O’Connor traffic at a standstill before or after the bike lane addition. It’s always moving. I’m willing to bet that I’ve been there a lot more than Doug Ford, and I’m even more willing to bet that my city is working with a lot more relevant data on this than this legislation is based off of.

Let municipalities make the decisions on roads that they fund.