Having reviewed the bill and…

Having reviewed the bill and read up on coverage of it in the media, I have two main comments to make. They depend on the government's motives. Please don't take the second point to be an attack. I simply do not know from my perspective what motivation the government has.

1) If the government is motivated to improve traffic congestion, I don't think this bill is a good way to do it. Municipalities know their roads and road users best. If a city like Toronto decides that a lane is better utilized as a bike lane, it's because they know after performing careful study that it will move more people. Bikes are smaller than cars, buses and streetcars hold more people than cars, etc. Sometimes the math just works out that way. Let cities do their job to move the most people.

2) If the government is politically motivated, hoping to be more popular during the next election by doing this, then this bill represents a dangerous road to go down. Things like cycling should not become political. It shouldn't be a "PC thing" or an "NDP thing" to want to use a lane for one purpose or another. It's just about moving people best. That's it. If we go down this path, we're going to see other things that are best decided by experts start to be thought of as political, and progress on them is going to slow.

Thanks for reading,
Matt