The portions of the bill…

The portions of the bill about removing bike lanes are highly unnecessary and go against what the Ontario PC Party claims to stand for. The Ontario PC Party claims to want to remove red tape and bureaucracy, but this bill is adding much more red tape and bureaucracy by having to review each and every new and existing bike lane. The Ontario PC Party claims to want to increase the choices people have in their lives, but removing bike lanes is removing the choice to commute safely with a bike. The Ontario PC Party claims to want to save people money, but not letting people choose a cheaper alternative to driving like biking safely will cost people more money. The Ontario PC Party claims to want to reduce gridlock and get traffic moving, but removing bike lanes will incentivize people to drive and add more cars to the road. The Ontario PC Party claims to be for businesses, but business has increased where bike lanes have been installed not to mention the bike share business, and removing bike lanes will harm those businesses.

There was gridlock before bike lanes, and there will be gridlock if they are removed. There are alternatives that could help without touching bike lanes, like removing street parking and getting police to enforce the existing rules, such as not blocking intersections. When I drive, I don't want to worry about hitting someone on a bike or walking, bike lanes make driving safer too. This bill is also very focused on Toronto, the Ontario PC Party should be focused on the province as a whole, and let Toronto decide what's best for Toronto and other cities decide what's best for them. I don't expect the federal government to override what the province wants, so I don't expect the province to override what each city wants. The Ontario PC Party would do better by creating province-wide standards on what guidelines to follow if a city wants to implement bike lanes. Bike lanes should be considered essential infrastructure like vehicle lanes and sidewalks. More trains getting people downtown instead of driving downtown would also reduce traffic. The only way to reduce traffic is with viable alternatives to driving.

I also think trying to speed up construction of highway 413 is unnecessary too. A better use of resources would be buying the 407 back and removing the tolls. This bill has a lot of attention on the bike lane removal, but the parts about the 413 highway should not go ignored.