Why is there even a need for…

Why is there even a need for the province to be involved in a municipal decision? Bike lanes are essential travel infrastructure. I use them on a daily basis and local governments need to be free to make these decisions based on the needs of their communities without excessive bureaucracy slowing down or reversing the process.

Also, removing bike lanes from streets will not solve traffic. More lanes for cars will not solve traffic. It's induced demand. (Link 2, also discusses issues with highway 413). As there are more lanes, more people will drive, causing the same slow travel speeds as before. Making it more attractive to bike will make more people choose to switch from driving to biking as it becomes faster and more comfortable than driving.

Further, what about safety? Protected bike lanes make it much safer for cyclists AND makes it much less stressful to drive. From personal experience as someone who bikes and drives, I always prefer streets with separated bicycle infrastructure no matter if I'm driving or biking. Having separated spaces for different modes of transport makes both modes better. Many studies have also found that protected bike lanes are provably safer. Reference link 1 compiled a number of studies analyzing the safety of bike infrastructure, all of which confirm that protected infrastructure reduces the risk of injuries and deaths in cyclists.

In all, removing bike lanes and preventing new ones from being built will result in disadvantaging those that cannot or choose not to drive, likely make traffic worse, and continue to put cyclists in harms way. This bill is a bad idea.