I strongly oppose this act's…

I strongly oppose this act's attempt to restrict the construction of bike lanes on municipal roads. I believe that decisions regarding local transportation management should be left to muncipalities, and that the province is significantly overstepping its bounds by trying to insert itself on these matters.
I also fundamentally disagree with the reasoning behind this act. It is well known in the transportation planning industry that increasing road capacity is not a long-term solution for reducing congestion due to induced demand. Additionally, driving is a highly space-inefficient method of travel, particularly since drivers often travel as single occupants and do not have any passengers. Therefore, even if current road capacity were preserved, population growth would still result in increased congestion if people continue to choose driving as their primary - or only - mode of travel. Reducing or eliminating bike infrastructure will NOT reduce gridlock or save Ontarians' time - rather, providing more efficient alternatives to travel is the only long-term solution. Bicycle infrastructure is essential to making sure people have adequate alternatives.
If the claim is that bicycle infrastructure should not be built because it will be underused, this claim ignores the fact that bicycle infrastructure, like any transportation infrastructure, is less effective if provided discontinuously rather than as a continuous connected network. This can only be achieved by gradually expanding infrastructure over time, not by adding roadblocks to its construction. This also means that the future potential usage of cycling infrastructure cannot be accurately assessed based on existing cycling demand; exising cycling demand will necessarily be underrepresentative of potential future demand because people will be less inclined to cycle where they feel unsafe or where there is no dedicated infrastructure for them to use. This also means that the suggestion to only build cycling infrastructure on side streets is inadequate because this is unlikely to provide a sufficiently connected network to serve all the destinations people may want to cycle too, which would again result in low usage.
Finally, providing dedicated transportation infrastructure for non-auto modes is absolutely essential for safety. Cyclists and pedestrians are at high risk of injury or death in vehicle collisions; failing to provide dedicated infrastructure increases the risk that they will suffer such collisions. Failing to provide adequate infrastructure is therefore a direct threat to people's safety. By trying to stifle the development of protected cycling infrastructure, this provincial government is stating that they do not care about the lives of anyone outside of a car, and do not respect anyone's choice to travel by any mode other than driving.
As a someone who lives and works in downtown Toronto and has made significant use of the available cycling infrastructure, such as the bike lanes on Yonge, University, St. George, Bloor, and Sherbourne, I strongly hope that the province will amend this act and continue to allow muncipalities to make their own decisions regarding how to build a transportation network that is built for long-term sustainability, that provides users with safe and convenient choices for getting around, and that prioritizes users' health, safety, and lives.