I am providing these…

I am providing these comments with the hopes that the provincial government will re-consider its position on bike lanes and leave those decisions in the hands of the municipal governments. I have reviewed the framework for Bill 212 and would like to provide feedback on the proposal details:

COMMENT: We need to make decisions based FACTS, EVIDENCE AND DATA - not anecdotal accounts from the premier and his Transportation Minister. I find it astonishing that there is no actual data provided in this proposal to back up their claims of bike lanes causing traffic yet this government is ready to proceed with removals? Based on what? Assertions of first responders "pulling their hair out", fire trucks not being able to get across the road due to barriers/bike lanes and the streets being "an absolute disaster/nightmare" are simply untrue and highlight a government that hasn't done any serious research on the impacts of bike lanes on these particular streets. The truth is that there are multiple confounding variables that contribute to traffic. The many construction projects. Road closures. Car accidents. Events around the downtown Toronto core that occur frequently. Toronto is one the fastest growing cities in North America and I feel given how restricted we are in expanding the roads downtown, the best way to tackle this problem is to encourage people to use other forms of transportation (i.e. bikes, subways, buses, walking) NOW. It's great for the environment! We also need to invest in these alternate forms of transit. By not doing this, as our population begins to expand, we're going to continue to see more and more cars on the downtown Toronto streets which will only make traffic worse, given that we don't really have much capacity to expand the downtown roads. If the bike lanes are removed, do we really think one lane extra lane is going to solve our problem? What if all of those on bikes now turn around and decide to drive? What if those who bike decide to bike on the road with the cars (a very unsafe situation)? We should be following what other world-class cities have done (i.e. Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen). The bottom line is this provincial government once again is making decisions based on personal anecdotes so without any substantial evidence to support their claims, I don't want them making any decisions about bike lanes and am strongly against Bill 212. If you're so concerned about bike lanes in municipalities, do your own research and assessments and PRESENT THEM TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC for scrutiny before you try and pass a bill.