Dear MPPs or Provincial…

Dear MPPs or Provincial policy people,

Tell your leader & Minister this is a bad idea. I will likely be killed from these decisions! You will make my commute either: extremely unsafe, entirely not possible, or take over twice as long! Why does my safety and commute time not matter to you? People are more important than "potentially" saving mere seconds off car drivers commutes (I say potentially because your assumption on this isn't backed up by facts).

I cycle almost daily from east end Toronto using Danforth/Bloor bike lanes to get to work downtown. There are very limited alternative routes and those still go down main roads including Rosedale Valley to Bayview, or Bloor/Danforth to Pottery Road. Those alternatives take over twice as long to do and don't work when the Don floods. There are no "side streets" to get me to work/home or the other essential places I use Bloor bike lanes, Yonge bike lanes, or University bike lanes when running errands. If bike lanes are only approved for side streets no one will use them because they won't lead anywhere useful for cyclists to go and would be a huge waste of money to build.

I used to live in the Annex area and also Yonge/Davenport. The bike lanes in those areas are massive improvements to what those areas were like a decade or so ago! They are so much safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. The city consulted citizens, did studies, did pilot projects, and so much more, before building bike lanes you now see on Bloor, Yonge & University. I was consulted. They are needed. They address issues those areas faced for decades and people fought to get those bike lanes added. How is the province any better equipped than the city to make decisions for local municipalities? Why are you vetoing municipal decisions instead of helping them build what's right for their community?

Why are you writing legislation to undo decades worth of work to improve cities, like Toronto. Citizens want bike lanes, plus actual data and studies show bike lanes are safer and improve traffic!