I believe that in Toronto a…

I believe that in Toronto a full assessment should be made of the bike lane system on principal throughfares such as Yonge Street, Bloor/Danforth and University Avenue . Yonge Street from Bloor St to north of St Clair is a particularly egregious example . Most seriously, the lanes reductions have made it virtually impossible for emergency vehicles to get up the street . The bike lobby argues that bike lanes will encourage people to leave their cars at home and ride thereby reducing pollution. But bike lanes on major through streets like Yonge and Bloor preversely have the opposite effect. Gridlock is created and vehicles run and idle for much longer producing much greater emissions for the same distance travelled.
While bike lanes are a signficant issue, not to be forgotten in Toronto is so called CafeTO, a holdover from Covid which allows restaurants to block a lane of traffice to expand their seating for the summer . This has the same effect as bike lanes when on a major thoroughfare