Hello, This proposed…

Hello,

This proposed legislation to remove bike lanes is inappropriate, and using valuable taxpayer time and money to pursue this policy is grossly wasteful, callous and mean-spirited. No level of government, anywhere, should be removing, or proposing to remove bike lanes without an alternative cycling route available. The correct approach to cycling infrastructure is to make it safe, through separate routes, fully connected across all barriers, including across main streets, highways and railways, and to make Ontario's cycling network as extensive as possible, as quickly as possible. As someone who commutes by bicycle from Scarborough to downtown, using the University Avenue bike lanes, the proposal if implemented will negatively impact me by depriving me of a safe travel option. I have personally noted that the University Ave bike lanes are quite busy, so there are many other people this would impact. Additionally, Scarborough is severely lacking in safe, connected bicycle routes, and the proposed leglislation would make it more difficult to construct or install safe infrastructure, as Scarborough has very few through-running, continuous side streets. And the most direct route into downtown Toronto for me is along Danforth Rd, a busy main road, and to give another example, the CP rail line, running diagonally across Scarborough from Flemingdon Park to Rouge Park, does not have any safe cycling route, or any side street, crossing it between the East Don River and Highway 7. That is a barrier over 20 km long, and that, and other barriers, cause low uptake of cycling as a means of transport in Scarborough.

Additionally, I want to know what the goals of such legislation are, because the proposal will not improve traffic flow as desired. The results will instead resemble a congested main street, such as the current conditions of Eglinton between Weston and Dufferin. Such a policy has been attempted before, on Jarvis in 2011, and no improvement in journey times were noted; rather traffic got worse, less safe, and more congested.

--J.S.
(Scarborough Southwest)