As someone who has regularly…

As someone who has regularly driven since 1981 on the three Toronto streets specifically called out in the proposal, I have my own experience to add: That can be summed up as removing the bike lanes will not speed up the flow of automobile traffic on those streets.

Traffic has been heavy on those streets throughout the time I've driven on them. However, it has gotten worse and is more likely to be gridlocked the closer you are to downtown. My observation from the street is that since TPS reduced their traffic unit in size in the early 2010s, the root cause of the congestion lies almost entirely in the lack of civil behaviour by car drivers. Intersections are regularly blocked, right-hand and left-hand turns are made unsafely, and car drivers routinely ignore red lights. Illegal parking runs rampant.

As well, there's some science to back up the view that bike lanes are not the culprit. The Bloor Street BIA put it much better than I can: Bike lanes result in no increase in congestion and an improvement in business outcomes. I want to underline that no data supports the government's assertion that removing bike lanes will reduce congestion. It's probably important to note that most people who regularly commute by bicycle are also licensed drivers and, without a safe way to cycle to work, will add their cars to the congestion. Aside from this, the suggestion that cyclists use side streets to get to their destination is ridiculous. A look at the map of Toronto shows that very few alternatives offer direct routes to where people need to go that are not major arterial roads.

As a final point, both the head of Toronto EMS and Toronto Police Service's Traffic Division report no increase in response time or an improvement where bike lanes have been installed.

What will be the end result if the PCs get their way?
More traffic congestion
More dead pedestrians and cyclists
Reduced revenue for businesses on those streets
A likely increase in response times for emergency vehicles.

None of these probable outcomes are the stated desired outcome.