This proposal should be…

This proposal should be stopped.
Based on no real data or facts it apparently serves no good to the people of Ontario.
Toronto has been absolutely the worst place in Canada for vehicular "traffic" for many reasons, among them
- lack of funding and lack of focus on infrastructure & public transit that provide alternative ways to get around the city given the massive population growth in the last decades.
- unsustainable development patterns - massive low density sprawl that forces people to live farther away form places they want and have to go. And when the only way to get there reasonably fast & reliably is by car - people drive.

Numbers of bike "commuting" presented by the minister of transportation was not accurate (it's actually 2% vs 1.2 on average and much higher in certain areas where the network is better developed) but there is a bigger point to make. There aren't many people currently cycling in Toronto, the network of bike path in the city is absolutely lackluster especially compared to network of roads available for cars. The coverage is somewhat decent in downtown area and we can see much higher numbers of people cycling there as a result. But anywhere outside of downtown it's a complete desert with a few tiny bits of paths that don't even connect to anywhere meaningful. We cannot reasonably expect anyone to bike in such conditions aside from most brave folks - which is what we sued to call "a cyclist" forgetting that a comprehensive network of protected bike lanes and paths invite many other types of cyclists that we simply don't see right now due to lack of such network. Kids, whole families, elderly, commuters, leasure cyclists, grocery shoppers and many many more who simply do not feel safe to cycle in our current conditions.

When we build a network and not just a few bike lanes out of context, in other words we reach critical mass in our coverage people do use it a lot more. It's proven over and over again in many cities around the world. Montreal has been breaking all records of trips made using their local bikeshare service (bixby) metrics due to their recent massive improvements of the cycling network. This means we can achieve it here as well if we continue expanding our own cycling network of protected & separated bike lanes.

You don't measure the demand for a bridge by counting how many people swim across the river.

It's a matter of choice and it appears that this proposal is steering us towards the wrong one. This proposal will result in 0 changes to (car) traffic in the short term, less safe streets for anyone who's currently on the bike, fewer people overall who choose to bike (and more of them choosing driving, so much for "traffic" reducing). This doesn't even have to be a political issue, making it one only adds division to our society.

I want myself to be able to bike to places safely and quickly, I want my kids to be able to bike and not worry that they'll be ran over by yet another driver because our city or province decided that populistic agenda is more important than safety of people who literally remove cars from the road by choosing to bike.

I hope our city will fight this vigorously and I will personally actively support any initiative and action to stop this madness.