Dear Government, As a…

Dear Government,

As a citizen of this country, this is the first time in my life that I've written to You. I apologize for the length of this letter (narrated on YouTube for Your convenience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuW3Cq3j9cw&t=89s ), but with deepest gratitude, I humbly request that You read it attentively to the end so that You may fully understand me and also help me understand You if my perceptions are incorrect. I strongly disagree with Your plan to restrict and remove bike lanes in Ontario. Specifically Toronto. Specifically the Bloor West (BW) bike lanes, which have been Your manufactured point of contention recently.

I will first explain why I've chosen to write to You. After, I will address a few points that I heard when I attended Councillor Amber Morley's town hall on 16Oct24, however I expect You to already know everything I say there. That was also the first time during my citizenship of this country that I've ever felt motivated enough to attend a political meeting of any sort.
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Why I'm writing to You:

I was taught by Your education system, which always strives to teach the best of what our human civilization has learned over the past few millennia. I didn’t retain much when You taught me about politics in high school civics class because I didn't care. But now I realize that everything is politics, because I see You threatening even the primary way I choose to safely move around this land where You taught me I'm supposed to be free. You also knew to teach me to stand up to You when needed, because You, like any human, are often tempted to make mistakes, and You'd want Your citizens to try and stop You.

This is why I’m now choosing to use what You've taught me to tell You that You are wrong. Nothing that I write in the next part about road safety should be beyond a high schooler's understanding, so I am sure that it's not beyond Your understanding either. Thus, the only reason You'd act like this against bike lanes is for Your own personal interests.

I am so ashamed of You right now, Government. You're putting Your own selfish needs to overreach into municipal politics before the needs of Your fellow humans. I'm using this shame and embarrassment that I feel as motivation to write to You for the first time in my life.

We are selfish people today, our stupider society was selfish a thousand years ago, our much stupider hominid ancestors were also selfish millions of years ago. Though naïve and self-centred of me, I had really hoped to be alive in an era where I could witness our collective society and government finally becoming intelligent enough to act beyond our selfishness, and realize that the answer to life is the connections we form with other people. Government, whether You realize it or not, Your role in society was, is, and forever will be, the sacred task of always prioritizing human connection, not separation.

Look closely in the mirror, Government. Everything You do has an end goal of fostering human connection. Transportation being arguably the most important because it's how we connect with other humans and access all the other rights and amenities that You and society provide us: health care, education, public services, food, entertainment, all of which also foster human connection. You cannot, in good faith to Your sacred task, discriminate against people by how they choose to transport themselves, especially when You know it will not solve any of the transportation problems of another group of people.

Even if some of our species remain too attached to their luxuries and can't quite understand why yet, You already know why because You possess the latest knowledge of our human civilization, which You also graciously shared with me. Your decision to support infrastructure and industries that separate us between metal boxes and wide stroads that no one wants to cross, was a mistake because they are obstructions to human connection. You know that this is why we are such terrible people to each other on the roads nowadays - or for that matter why we’re so terrible to each other online - it's harder to see each other so we forget that the other person is another human being. The rage we collectively feel when we drive, the anxiety, the stress, the selfishness, the danger, the unhappiness, the death, and most of all the physical and societal division, are all caused by the car-centric infrastructure You chose to support over the past hundred years, because You, understandably, thought cars were a cool, new way to get around. Though they are very useful in many ways, You couldn't have known that they would also cause us so much harm. But today You know - and You are once again faced with Your sacred task.

But I am certainly not the first person in history to hope to finally see the day You realize for good to always act in favour of human connection. And I won't be the last. I know Your job is not an easy one, but I'm hopeful I will see You push our society in the correct direction because You know it's the right thing to do, even if it costs You votes from vocal people who don't quite understand yet. You would, for the rest of my short life on this Earth, have my deepest respect for Your courage, though that should not influence Your decision either. If You keep and extend the BW bike lanes, as a sign of my deepest respect, I promise You that I will ride the bike lane every time You extend it, to as far as it goes, so long as I draw sufficient breath from this body. If You don't push it in the correct direction, I will understand that our species has not yet transcended beyond its selfishness.
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During Councillor Amber Morley's town hall, the anti-bike lane group (ABLG) that showed up raised valid concerns. I imagine they represent the common concerns that You're trying to appease in order to galvanize support amongst Your voter base. I wish to address some of the points I heard, though I expect You to already know everything I'm going to say.

There were people who thought bikes were dangerous, because they were endangered or injured by one. But You and I know that if they had been hit by a car instead, all other variables controlled for, they'd be much worse off, likely dead. You and I know that it's because an average car weighs over 200 times more than a cyclist on a bike, and can travel and accelerate much faster. You and I know that a cyclist would have to travel over 150km/h just to match the kinetic energy of a car going only 30km/h. You and I know that only cars kill millions of people per year and severely injure countless more. I don't expect everyone in the ABLG to remember high school physics, but they should not be surprised that greater mass, speed, acceleration equate to greater injury and death. The personal anecdotes of a few people serve as emotional manipulation, and do not change physics and the data culled from millions upon billions of people.
A man lived on a residential street in the area. He said that since the BW bike lanes were put in, cars have been zooming down his street in order to avoid Bloor. He and his family felt unsafe on his street. He supports removing the BW bike lanes as it would return all the detoured car traffic back to Bloor. The ABLG was supportive. However, we all know that no one likes dangerous cars zooming down their own streets, not even mentioning the noise and fumes that they cause. We all know that this is the exact same complaint that downtowners have when this man chooses to drive downtown and use residents' streets as his own personal thoroughfare and parking space. Guess what? The residents, pedestrians, and commerce owners on BW also do not like cars zooming past them, putting them in danger every time they walk outside. How self-centred, and hypocritical of him to think that only he deserves to be safe from these dangerous cars, because he'd rather have speeding cars on BW endangering people there, and he's fine with suburbanites like himself choosing to drive elsewhere, like downtown and making the streets there dangerous. I remind You, this was one of the main reasons You installed the BW bike lanes in the first place - to slow down cars for pedestrian and cyclist safety. And the panel confirmed it worked - average speeds are now much closer to the posted speed limit instead of almost twice the limit before the bike lanes, and pedestrians feel safer walking with their children with an extra bike lane buffer from cars. It sounds like the solution is to put a bike lane on his street to slow down cars there too.
A man spoke of his disabled wife who finds it hard to park close to their restaurant because of the bike lanes. Another man's mother got badly injured in the knees when a car hit her while she rode her bike. I'm sure You've realized the irony as well, that the more You prioritize only car infrastructure, the more cars will injure and disable people who will then need to also drive and park close to their restaurant. A never-ending cycle, until all our places are surrounded by rows of disabled parking for all the people disabled by cars. Stop the cycle, Government. I know that You, an entity made of humans, feel compelled to care deeply for individuals who come to You for help, especially if they voted for You. Millennia ago, society was made of small tribal groups and You could've taken the time to listen to all individual concerns. Today, it is not. Thousands upon millions of people use the road infrastructure here and Your decisions also ripple to the rest of the world. It's why You've invested so much time, money and resources into data and research, so You can learn what's best for millions now and for billions in the future, long after I, this man, his wife and the rest of us are all dead. She may be inconvenienced a bit, but catering our infrastructure disproportionately to her needs is not fair to the rest of us, present and future. You and I also know that living with disability, or rather living in general, is all about attitude, especially with modern technology. If I wanted to get around without a car regardless of my disabilities, I could find a way, but only if I had the motivation to look.
A man suggested putting the bike lane elsewhere or on residential streets. Firstly, besides Bloor, where else are bikes supposed to cross the Humber River? Waterfront is far. Dundas Street is far and dangerous. You would never make cars make that sort of detour. Secondly, You and I both know that the reason residential streets alone don't work is because cyclists want to go to the same places as anyone else, which are usually located on main streets like Bloor. Why should a person who chooses to drive have better and safer infrastructure to get to their destination than someone who chooses not to drive? You constantly favour the movement of car drivers over anyone else - pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders - by building the infrastructure that only tries to get drivers there the fastest, while being the most dangerous to everyone inside and outside a car, and forcing everyone else to take the slower, detour route. How dare You espouse equality in this society when You think that the things that car drivers do and places they go to are more important than everyone else's?
The same man also spoke about cyclists not obeying the rules. I am not against road rules whatsoever, but the panel correctly pointed out that pedestrians and drivers also disobey rules, which we all knew, and this man obviously knew as well already. We also know that a car driver not obeying the rules is far far more likely to cause grave injury or death than if a pedestrian or cyclist disobeys the rules, all other variables controlled for. Again, simply because a car weighs far more and can accelerate and travel far faster. Since we humans started to invent new tools, we've built progressively more dangerous tools. We've always put proportionately tighter restrictions on more dangerous tools, and we hold people who choose to use the more dangerous tools to proportionately higher standards and responsibilities. Considering how dangerous cars are to us compared to bikes, it is ludicrous to hold them to the same road standards. Car companies have only conditioned us over the past century to think that cars and bikes should be held to the same standards, or that drivers should be personally responsible for their own behaviours if their driving causes harm, because they can continue sell us more cars that way.
To the general ABLG sentiment that no one uses the bike lanes, instead of just being content with this superficial observation that seems to support the conclusion they want to arrive at, we should use our brains and think further. Why doesn't anyone use them? Rather, ask Yourself why You don't use them, or the subway that runs right along Bloor, for that matter. Is it because most residents don't actually live on Bloor, and the city hasn't given them a viable way to bike or transit up to Bloor to their favourite stores and restaurants? Do most of the drivers who are causing all this traffic here, actually even live here? Or is it our own minds, too preoccupied with what our peers think if we don't drive a car? Are we attached to the idea that driving a car is sign of success in life? If so, then the car industry's advertisements and their lobbying for car-centric infrastructure the past hundred years have succeeded in conditioning us to think that way.
Furthermore, the panel said we cannot focus simply on the present. BW, just like anywhere in the city, is growing fast in population. What's the ABLG's proposal for the future, short and long term after we're all dead? Remove the bike lanes and they might get temporary relief on their commute times, while increased car speeds endanger everyone else again, not that they care. With the minutes they shave off, I'm sure they'll be using them instead for meaningful tasks like curing cancer or solving world hunger - instead of doom scrolling or watching Netflix, right? This is the main reason anyone in the ABLG is so vocal to You. Any other issues that they raise, they only pretend to care about because it serves their purposes. They did not think to voice their concerns to You because they were, sitting in traffic one day, worried about the pollution they were emitting while idling. They did not reach out to You because they, one day decided to measure emergency response times and noticed they increased. After the population booms, and the road fills up with cars again because You've acquiesced to their selfish, entitled complaining, and built roads that force or encourage everyone to drive, what's the plan? Replace the sidewalks with car lanes because no one walks on them anyways, especially in the suburbs? After that fills up, pave the grass right up to the building because no one uses the grass? When that fills up, demolish the buildings for a highway? Make all our roads look like highway 401 today - no bikes, no sidewalks, no buildings - because traffic on the 401 runs great, doesn't it? This is human selfishness manifesting as shortsightedness where we only care about our own immediate needs.
The panel said the data showed that average travel times only increased one or two minutes along this stretch and intersection capacity has not changed drastically. The increased travel times are, of course, expected because the main goal was to curb speeding, I remind You. The fire chief explained that emergency response times actually dropped since the bike lanes were put in. But the ABLG's knee-jerk response is to deny any sort of data that doesn't match their lived experiences, which I do not discount. They're likely the ones who mainly drive during the worst of the rush, hence why they've come together to complain. But again, we're not a small tribe anymore. The complaints of a few dozen people do not represent the needs of the millions of people in this city, present and future. This is why we pay taxes to You, so You collectively have the resources to collect millions upon billions of data points, and it is normal to have data points that are outliers from the average and the ABLG needs to understand that as well. They need to understand that it’s understandable that they resist changing from what makes them feel comfortable. They need to understand that this discomfort is meant to push them into using their brains to find other viable options that work for them. This is what our ancestors’ brains did as well. They eventually figured out that giving up Your selfish needs loses You nothing. It instead makes You, and everyone around You happier. So yes, fellow human being, You are supposed to protect anyone more vulnerable than You, including road users. My ancestors learned and taught me that. Why hasn’t Yours learned and taught You that yet? How much longer is this going to take You, Government? We literally do have forever. You also learn from the best of the best, from not just urban planners, but sociologists, psychologists, engineers, and climate scientists etc. You have the ability to compile all that information together to figure out what's best for most of us, something that none of us can do individually by ourselves. You already know that the answer is not more car lanes. You said it Yourself that removing bike lanes will not help with car congestion. You must instead quickly improve our access to viable alternatives besides cars and actively promote them, regardless of what the shortsighted supporters You're trying to appease are saying.

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I humbly thank You for Your gracious time and attention, and I would be honoured to receive a response.

Signed,

@WannaBikeThere (YT, IG, TT)

Dated the twenty-third(23) day of October (the 10th month) in the year 2024 AD of the Gregorian calendar.

City: Old Toronto, Province: Ontario, Country: Canada

…in case any future historians or distant future anthropologists are studying this moment in history to see if we made the right decision. On this day, there was also a demonstration at the provincial legislature (Queen's Park) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 17:00 Eastern Standard Time (5 hours past midday), to protest against Your anti-bike lane legislation and for safe streets. Also, I'm curious to see if future historians and anthropologists can figure out what YT, IG, and TT were. Good luck!