Even as a voter with centre…

Even as a voter with centre to centre-right leanings living in suburban Toronto, removing bike lanes on major thoroughfares like Bloor and University, as well as curtailing municipalities ability to build new lanes, is absolutely asinine.

1. Gridlock in Toronto cannot be alleviated with more car lanes. Induced demand is a well researched phenomenon that the government is likely aware of and willfully ignores in this situation. If the government is ignorant of induced demand, please follow the attached link.

2. Ripping up bike lanes and paving them over is costly and time consuming. Lord knows construction projects in Ontario takes twice the time and cost as planned, and that is time businesses still recovering from economic downturn can ill afford. And when BIAs are complaining about the projected ill effects this move would have to businesses, I fail to see how the government is living up to its "open for business" catchphrase here.

3. As a driver, I wholeheartedly support separated bike lanes. This ensures the safety of drivers and bikers alike, and I'm sure everyone is in favour of fewer lethal accidents.

4. Good luck convincing any property owners on side streets to let the city build major biking thoroughfares through their neighbourhood. Practically, this will never work.

5. As it stands, both driving and transit infrastructure are woefully inadequate to support the rapidly increasing population. Alternative methods like biking will certainly help gridlock at a cheap rate. We know the government is incapable of delivering transit infrastructure in a timely manner anyhow.

6. Focus on provincial problems and let cities focus on municipal problems. Political conservatives are not a fan of government overreach!

Ultimately, bill 212 is poorly planned and utterly unhelpful. I would like for the government to focus its efforts on tackling much larger issues such as the housing crisis, unemployment, and a deteriorating healthcare system instead of wasting time and aggravating segments of its own voter base.

Thank you for reading and hope you have a nice day.