I'm writing as I have…

I'm writing as I have significant concern about the upcoming Bill 212 "Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act".

I am firstly concerned about the changes relating to requiring municipalities to obtain government approval before adding bike lanes where vehicle lanes are removed, and the review of any bicycle lanes that have been constructed in the last five years. My family are avid cyclists. We often cycle, including our three year old son, to do our errands around North Bay, and I strongly believe that bicycle lanes ensure our safety, while we work to reduce our environmental impact, to stay healthy and to foster a love of movement and the outdoors in our son. It is my understanding that this legislation should have a limited impact on our local bike lanes, as they are mostly older, but we often travel to other cities where we enjoy using their bike lanes to sightsee safely and I worry that that may be in jepordy. I also look forward to future bike lanes being constructed in North Bay and I believe that is a decision that should rest with our municipality, not with the provincial government. Many traffic studies support the fact that bike lanes do not make gridlock worse and can in fact help with traffic flow.

I am also concerned about the changes relating to exempting the 413 Highway project from the Environmental Assessment Act. There are already a lot of environmental concerns with any project of this scale and it is so important that they receive a full environmental assessment to ensure that the right decisions are being made. We live in a beautiful province and it is cruicial that we respect the environment where we are living so that it can continue to be enjoyed for lifetimes to come. I ask you to consider the lasting damage an enormous project like this could have on the environment of all Ontarians, all in an effort to reduce commuting times for a small subset of Ontarians. There is also much research does to show that increasing traffic capacity makes only a temporary reduction in commuting times, until more vehicles are on the road. I strongly believe that we should be investing that money in research-backed ways to reduce traffic, such as public transportation (I am eagerly awaiting the Northlander train next year), bicycle lanes, etc.