I am strongly opposed to the…

Dear Premier Ford and Minister Sarkaria,

I am strongly opposed to Bill 212.

Firstly, the removal of existing bike lanes or the curtailing of bike lane expansion in the City of Toronto is a grave mistake. Bike lanes save lives. Bicycles cannot safely travel on roads used by cars - there is simply not enough room to ensure safe passage.

Toronto is a sprawling, car-centric city with an inadequate public transit system. Currently, only 4% of city roads have bike lanes - this is not enough to allow citizens to safely commute from East to West and from North to South. We need more separated bike lanes, not less.

That being said, there may be ways to reduce the width of bike lanes in certain areas, such as the Bloor strip between Bedford and St George, where the bike lane is very wide, to allow for a passing lane for automobiles. But most bike lanes take up less than half of a lane of traffic, so this is the exception.

Again, removing existing bike lanes or curtailing expansion of bike lanes to allow cyclists to safely commute is a bad and dangerous idea.

Secondly, reducing car use is critical to achieving Ontario's carbon and pollution reduction targets - which is key to our future economic, social and physical wellbeing.

Rather than spending billions on more highways and tunnels for cars, we should be spending billions on expanding our subway and commuter train system - including a complete downtown relief line that reconnects with the Bloor line in the West end.

There are already too many cars on the road, and making it easier to get a driver's licence and get on the highway will only increase congestion in the downtown core and make the atmosphere more unlivable for everyone - drivers, cyclists, pedestrians.

The long-term solution to our health and climate crisis is to move people away from the car to more sustainable modes of transportation, including public transit and bicycles.

Please base your decisions on science-based evidence and not on the whims of a focus group that may represent your party's electoral base but not the majority of Ontarians - and particularly not those Ontarians that actually have to live with the consequences of your actions.

Sincerely,

Mark