As a Registered Professional…

As a Registered Professional Planner with over ten years of experience, a cyclist, a driver, a pedestrian, a Torontonian, brother, husband, son, and godparent, I implore you to reconsider the proposal to remove bike lanes in Toronto.

Setting aside that bike lanes do not cause congestion - they alleviate it - the decision-making about local infrastructure should be made by local governments. The Conservatives claim that they do not believe in "big government", but this legislation makes it clear that is nothing but empty rhetoric.

If you want to improve traffic, invest in public transit, remove on-street parking, pass legislation to make construction sites accommodate their own parking needs, or implement any number of evidence-based and common sense solutions.

Should the lanes be removed, people will die, traffic will get worse, and you will own every spilled drop of blood, broken blood, and lost life.