Long-term resident account…

Long-term resident account of bike lane benefit to University Avenue neighbourhood:
To whom it may concern,
I am a citizen living downtown near University Ave. With due respect to the data analysis that must have been involved in your creation of this bill, from my perspective from living in this area for over a decade, the negative effects to traffic congestion have been caused by continuous construction — not the completed bike lanes. The completed bike lanes have created safety and clarity for drivers and bikers, reducing the uncertainty that comes from sharing the road between very different vehicle types. I have frequented this area by car, bike, walking, transit, and shuttle bus, and I consider all of these modes important. My perspective from living here since 2013 is that the bike lanes have been positive for neighbourhood safety and efficiency. Road construction projects, on the other hand, have been both a disturbance and a cause of major traffic slowdowns, causing drivers to frequently take a significant amount of time to travel between College Street and King Street while construction projects are set up along University Avenue — whether the construction site is active that day or not. As a result of what I've observed, my guidance objectively is to keep the bike lanes on University Avenue installed (as well as on neighbouring streets), because they are a positive benefit to the community, and to avoid starting an unnecessary construction project to remove the bike lanes, because construction has been the major source of traffic slowdowns (as well as continuous noise pollution in an area that includes residential use, a hospital palliative care unit, a children's hospital, and tourism). I hope these observations help with your deliberations of the bill.
Sincerely,
RL