I am a married 65 year old…

I am a married 65 year old retired Respiratory Therapist and Healthcare Manager with a 24 yr old daughter. Our family are cyclists living in downtown Toronto. I have lived in this area for over 40 years. I drive, take transit, walk and cycle. Driving is typically done for large grocery runs or leaving the city. I find cycling to be the most efficient way to get around the city. When my daughter was very young, she sat on her "Trail-a-bike" behind me as we went back and forth to her school, daycare and summer camps at Harbourfront. When she was old enough to ride her own bike, we did the same. During her summers at Harbourfront camps, there was quite a bit of construction on Queens Quay Blvd. I taught her how to successfully maneuver around the most dangerous areas. After dropping her off, I had to ride north to my job in a downtown teaching hospital. I had a choice: Simcoe St was only useful for part of the journey as it became a one way street southbound at some point. (I would not break the law and go against traffic like so many do). I would have to then move over to University Avenue. I was actually afraid everyday as I did this route. How I would have loved the bike lanes that go all the way along University Avenue. If these bike lanes are removed, how should cyclists get to work or appointments - In busy traffic (which was gridlocked long before the bike lanes)? or perhaps move over to Bay? Yonge? We will go back to having no safe route to work. Fast-forward to my daughter's high school years. She attended Etobicoke School for the Arts - quite a distance from our downtown condo. She asked me if she could ride her bike instead of taking the bus + subway + bus everyday, both ways. My answer was NO. Her choices would have been Queensway (no bike lanes! - even now the bike lanes only go as far west as the Food Terminal - after which cyclists get to share the road with transport trucks full of veggies - going at least 60K/hr.) The other option was Bloor (no bike lanes at the time!.) If the Bloor bike lanes had existed when she was in high school i would have said yes! - she would have been riding. My daughter is an excellent cyclist. She consistently wears her helmet and obeys all the rules of the road. She was DEVASTATED when her friend and fellow dancer was killed while riding her bike on Dufferin St in Dec 2020. Thinking about it still brings me to tears. She could have been anybody's daughter. She was responsibly navigating traffic and just trying to get home. She would likely be alive today if there had been bike lanes. Our city is doing their best to extend the network of bike lanes to protect all commuters (drivers, transit riders, pedestrians and cyclists.) I applaud these efforts and say "full steam ahead". The best way to reduce gridlock is to get as many people as possible out of their cars. Some will always need to drive - but many could easily take the aforementioned means of transportation. If bike lanes are not installed or foolishly taken out, then parents like me will once again tell their children not to cycle to school, and I will once again be very afraid while out and about. I want my daughter and everyone else to be safe on the roads. Your Minister of Transportation suggested that bike lanes should be on "side streets". Where is the side street that goes from downtown Toronto to the West end of the city. I see Bloor on the north end of High Park and Queensway on the south end. There are NO side streets to travel west. How far out the their way should a cyclist have to detour? Travelling east is no better. If bike lanes are removed from Bloor - how should we cross the DVP? Gerard? Queen? Not without bike lanes. Your plan will put more people back in cars and increase gridlock. The common sense thing to do is to continue expanding the cycling network. It is good for the environment, the economy (we cyclists actually spend that money that we don't spend on gas), and it is very good for keeping traffic moving.