Dear Premier Ford. I live…

Dear Premier Ford. I live in the City of Toronto. I am a white middle aged man. I own a car. I also cycle or walk for most of my work and personal activities in the City. What is most important to me is safety. What I don't want is to be maimed or killed while riding my bicycle. I use the Bloor and University bicycle lanes often and I can tell you that my life is so much safer and my quality of life so much better than it was before these key east-west and north-south routes were installed. I use them to frequent businesses I would never go to before without proper bicycle access.

What is most worrying me is your statement that these bicycle lanes will be removed. There is no science, logic or fiscal responsibility behind doing such an irresponsible thing. You will be PUTTING MY LIFE AT RISK. There is no public interest in creating more red tape for municipalities, and wasting taxpayers money to undo something that has had no or, at best, minimal impacts on vehicle travel times. What is next - rip out all the sidewalks to add car lanes? Remove the playgrounds for parking lots to store all these cars you want to accommodate? Are you planning to pay the City of Toronto for the taxpayer's money it spent on planning, designing and installing the cycle lanes, as well as tearing them out? Please be realistic here.

If you want to work with municipalities to try to reduce congestion, then work with them, but don't target safe bicycle infrastructure. Talk to Mayor Chow about how to implement a variety of safe, reliable transportation options, rather than hiding behind this pointless legislation that will just cost us all money and make our quality of life worse.

Research has shown that adding more traffic lanes does not solve congestion problems. Think about it - Ontario has been building more and more roads for decades at great up-front capital cost, and burdening future generations with maintenance and replacement costs. And we still have traffic congestion. Ontario communities have only been building cycle lanes for about 10 years. And the congestion has not significantly increased despite accommodating a massive population expansion. Cycle lanes are not the problem you are trying to solve, Mr. Premier.

Trusting you will care about public health and safety and not move forward with this wasteful proposal. Thank you.