Bike lanes do not increase…

Bike lanes do not increase congestion, they provide a safe corridor for cyclists that takes them out of the path of drivers, while reducing the number of cars on our streets, the pollution in our air, and the burden on our overtaxed transit system. Bike lanes are essential to the safety and efficiency of BOTH cyclists and drivers. Getting rid of bike lanes will not get decrease congestion, it will only put the lives of cyclists in danger and make driving more hazardous and frustrating for drivers as cyclists are forced back into the general street traffic.
As a driver, I feel so much safer with cyclists separated from the main road, not weaving in and out of traffic. As a cyclist, bike lanes are essential to making the city feel safe enough for me to traverse on two wheels. Before the Bloor bike lanes were installed, I would not bike to work, the fear of having to merge with drivers in rush hour traffic going under dangerous overpasses with no shoulder and very low visibility was too much of a risk, and too many near misses on my bike had me avoiding it entirely. Now I regularly bike down Bloor at any hour, any day of the week. The Bloor bike lanes have been an amazing addition to the city, only outdone by the fully separated lanes added to stretches of college and University. It is amazing to have modern infrastructure being added to the city of Toronto, and it would be an unforgivable waste of money to tear up the hard work that has been done to implement these lanes.
We have the data, we know that bikes are good for business (https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/default/files/documents/con056212.pdf), we know that bike lanes REDUCE congestion rather than increasing it (https://epub.wupperinst.org/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/6597/file/659…), why would the Conservative government want to do something as fiscally irresponsible as removing valuable infrastructure at such a cost to tax payers?
Every person on a bike is one less person riding our overburdened transit system or driving a car and adding to the congestion in the city. Encouraging cycling is the best way to reduce air pollution, reduce noise pollution, reduce cars on the street, and encourage exercise for people living in the city. If we make the city streets safe enough for the people that want to bike, it will free up the streets for the people that want or need to drive. Toronto is expanding rapidly and it is unrealistic to think that we can design this city only for drivers, that one extra lane of traffic is somehow going to fix the congestion problem inherent to big cities. Look to any major European city, look at Paris, look at New York. Do we want to be moving backward?

We want a city that is designed to keep everyone safe, to keep everyone moving forward, please don't rip up the progress we've already made.