To whom it may concern, I…

To whom it may concern,

I write to express my deep concern about the proposal to review and potentially remove bike lanes in Ontario and to urge you to abandon this short-sighted and highly damaging proposal.

I am a driver, cyclist, and pedestrian in Toronto. I am also a professor and social scientist at the University of Toronto with a record of published research that bears directly on energy transition policies. So I have both personal experience and expertise on this topic.

Most importantly, bike lanes are essential infrastructure to protect my and my family's safety as well as the health and safety of all Ontarians. I have bike-commuted to work for over 5 years. I have also used my bike, equipped with a kid's bike seat, to regularly transport my two children to daycare during that time. My children are now 8 and 5 years old and ride their own bicycles. According to Toronto Police Services data, 34 people have lost their lives to fatal car collisions so far in 2024. Six were cyclists. Eliminating protected bike lanes from widely used thoroughfares will put our safety at risk. Less appreciated, but equally devastating, are the health effects of continued investment in car infrastructure. A 2021 federal study found that 500 Ontarians and 170 Torontonians died prematurely as a direct consequence of traffic related air pollution in 2015. Given the rise in both vehicles and Toronto's population since 2015, we can reasonably expect these figures to be underestimates of the current counts. Reducing the number of cars on the road saves lives in multiple ways.

I commute by bike daily. There are two things that I notice on my commutes. First, I notice the growing number of Torontonians using bike lanes for their daily travel. Due to growing demand, the building I work at downtown has added two additional bike racks last spring. They were at capacity again this summer. Bike Share Toronto statistics, the most reliable bike usage figures we have, back up my observation. The number of trips have grown from 665,000 in 2015 to 5.7 million trips in 2023--a near 10-fold increase in less than a decade! Bike lanes increasingly provide essential transportation infrastructure for Torontonians and this trend is expected to only accelerate.

The second thing I observe on my commute is a line of cars, many are SUVs and the vast majority with a single occupant--the driver. Passing one single-occupant car after another throws the absurdity of blaming bicycles for the traffic problem in sharp relief. Cars cause traffic, not bicycles. I sympathize with the residents who have no other option except to drive and must endure gridlock. So let's focus on actual solutions, encouraging and enabling commuters to make other choices. Bike lanes are one option that commuters are increasingly choosing. Let's focus the conversation on questions that actually matter. Why do many commuters who live near public transit lines still choose to drive (this includes many in my neighbourhood in Toronto, just 5 km from downtown and on a streetcar line)? Why does the Eglinton Crosstown LRT remain incomplete with apparently no accountability? Why are TTC fares some of the highest in the world?

Toronto is expected to grow by 1.1 million residents (35%) by 2051. If the Government wants to address transportation in a sustainable, forward-looking way, they should focus on answering and addressing questions like the ones I listed above, not on taking away choice from Ontarians.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Fedor A. Dokshin