I am writing in because I am…

I am writing in because I am incredibly against bill 212. I believe that the province is severely overstepping their jurisdiction by enforcing their will about bike lanes on municipalities. The province does not have the right or the knowledge to assess where bike lanes should be installed. In addition, requiring the removal of bike lanes along Bloor, Yonge, and University when multiple groups and organizations (including the assessment done by the province itself) state that removing these lanes will actually make traffic worse makes me think that this is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money to actively make the lives of citizens of Ontario worse.

As a someone who regularly walks, bikes, transits, and drives around Toronto and its surrounding areas, I view bike lanes as an improvement in all the ways that I commute.

When I'm driving, separated bike lanes allow me to drive faster since I don't have to be worried about giving them the space they need on the road that they are legally allowed to share with the cars. I don't have to slow down behind the bike, check the other lane so I can cut over slightly to pass. I don't have to worry about the bikers randomly cutting into the middle as I'm trying to pass. The removal of bike lanes will not stop people who don't own cars (like the uber eats delivery people) from biking, it will just make the roads more chaotic and dangerous, and make me no longer want to drive in busy downtown areas because of the added stressors of having bikers sharing the same set of pavement with cars.

When I'm biking, separated bike lanes allow me to stay safe and be out of the way of cars. This lets both me and the cars that I would have been blocking if I was on the road with them move faster. When I'm biking in the separated bike lane, I'm not driving to the place that I was going to go to, meaning one less car in the way for other drivers.

If bike lanes are removed, it's not going to stop people from wanting to go to the places they go to, it's just going to cause those same people who would have biked to those places to drive there instead. Adding more cars to the road is only going to increase traffic, and make gridlock worse. Every person in a bike lane is one person who's not in a car causing traffic for everyone else who is driving.

I strongly encourage the Government of Ontario to reconsider removing bike lanes, and adding unnecessary red tape to the bike lane process. Conservatives are supposed to value small government, and a bill like this goes completely against conservative ideology. If the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario allows such a bill to pass, or attempts to propose similar legislation that oversteps their jurisdiction, I will assume that the party has completely abandoned their values and will do everything in my power to ensure that the government is no longer in power in the next election. If Bill 212 is not pulled by the time I receive my 200 dollar cheque, that money and more will be going directly to an opposition party.