I am 27, work in Finance …

I am 27, work in Finance (capital markets), am a homeowner, & am in the top tax bracket (you can verify by checking my tax returns). I will honestly say that I was planning on voting for Doug Ford this next election, chiefly because of his plans to remove safe consumption sites, but the plan to remove bike lanes has removed any possibility of him receiving my vote in the future.

I fundamentally think this is a terrible idea. Ripping out bike lanes, simply put, will lead to more people dying on our streets. I bike to work most days & I work downtown in the financial district. On my commute, I have access to bike lanes via Gerrard (which cars regularly block) & Bay Street until Dundas (which cars regularly block). After Dundas, the right lane of Bay St turns into a lane for bikes, motorcycle, buses, & taxis, although it is regularly filled with commuters who shouldn't be using this lane. On this short strip of road, on Bay from Dundas to King, I am on a daily basis, passed incredibly dangerously (less than 1 meter of space) by impatient drivers that don't realize how dangerous their actions are. The irony is they are passing me to occupy a lane they shouldn't be in and should be ticketed for using (this could literally make millions in rev for the govt, if you started enforcing this stretch of Bay).

All of this to say, if this is my experience on a 4 block stretch, imagine how bad it would be on a long commute along Bloor with no bike lanes. Or down Yonge Street or university.

The second irony, of course, is that removing these bike lanes would mean cyclists would have to occupy a car lane (either by driving or biking, both of which would lead to more congestion). Bloor, Yonge, & University, as you have identified, are major roads, meaning they have people living adjacent to them & businesses along them. Removing these lanes won't mean people will stop bike commuting on these roads. It will likely mean, though, that more people get hit by cars because they no longer have protection and more people will drive leading to more congestion all around.

Think about your children & your family. What if they had been one of the many cyclists or pedestrians killed this year due to dangerous drivers. What if they become one of the surely many that are killed after you do remove these lanes.

Do you really want to regress our city? Or do you want to propel it into the future?