Bike lane policy should…

Bike lane policy should remain the purview of local government (city, town, etc.). It's not clear why the Provincial government is once again interfering with city planning policy. The proposal is shortsighted and fails to address the actual causes of congestion. It will only increase road congestion and danger. The current research on dedicated bike lanes shows that they greatly improve road safety, decrease congestion and/or have minimal impact on motor vehicle travel times, and are beneficial to local businesses by bring more people traffic, not less. Our solutions to making our city livable should be focused on people not cars. In Toronto the use of the bike share program has increased exponentially and the implementation of bike lanes has drastically improved road safety. The numbers used by the Provincial government to illustrate increased congestion are from a period of time when the COVID pandemic had greatly reduced the number of cars on our roads. Since that time people have returned to work in the office and are once again going out regularly. Additionally, since that time the number of road work projects and building projects causing road or lane closures has also greatly increased. Congestion also comes from a lack of alternative methods to move around the city. We need improvements that get people out of cars, such as continued improvement of bike lane infrastructure, urban planning focusing on making our cities more walkable and strong investment in public transit. Most cities around the world have already learned that a robust, accessible public transit system and strong bike infrastructure are the backbone to a strong economy. However, both the Canada and Ontario governments have failed to properly invest in public transit. Although Toronto is of great economic and strategic importance to the country and province it has one of the most under funded, expensive to use, limited reach public transit systems in the world. The proposal seems to be intended only to target a hot-button issue to draw attention away from numerous Provincial government scandals and to draw votes prior to an expected election by scapegoating bike lanes/bicyclists. An us vs. them campaign. We need real proposals based on research that will actually address congestion and poor road safety, not scapegoating.