Cars are the cause of…

Cars are the cause of congestion. Encouraging more driving is a losing strategy to reduce congestion. Instead of addressing actual issues and presenting proven methods of reducing congestion this bill will only increase it. Everyone, regardless of method of transportation, has places they need to be or would like to get to. There is a reason that bike lanes on main roads work, because it lets people opt to take a bike instead of a car. Cars are by far the least efficient use of space on our roads when everyone is forced to use one. Most cars are single occupancy as well. Creating a shared space for all, especially on main roads in a major city reduces congestion by taking people out of cars and onto transit (speaking of which the Crosstown LRT is STILL not open). If this government was actually serious about reducing congestion they would provide the support to municipalities and local governments to handle it, not this gross overreach of power into municipal issues. Toronto did not vote for this government. Therefore you should not be able to meddle in municipal affairs on behalf of the tourists from the subrubs that get offended at the sight of a bike. Not only that, those coming into the city should be encouraged to consider other means of transit to come into the city like our GO network and the TTC when their trip allows for it. This way, those trips that do need a car will actually be faster because there will be fewer cars overall. This is the wrong approach to reducing congestion. There are no bike lanes along to 401 or Lakeshore or the Don Valley Parkway, and yet they are still congested. Are you going to remove the non-existent bike lanes there to magically fix congestion there too? All world class cities have had to address traffic and bike lanes have helped every single time. I suggest you leave municipal issues to municipalities and stop forcing cities to become more hostile to the people that live there in favour of cars. Why doesn't our Minister of Transport, or the Premier take public transit instead of their single occupancy SUVs that take up an unnecessary amount of space on the road and to park. Save the car trips for when there is no other alternative. We have a subway station AT Queen's Park. Another note, bikes and pedestrians are better for business. Cars don't shop, people do. And the easier it is for people to stop along their route the more likely they are to shop. There is not enough land in the world for enough parking spaces to be available for drivers to be able to do the same.