- I am commenting as a…

I am commenting as a resident along Bloor Street West, who walks, cycles and drives to get around. I cycle almost every day to work in the Bloor bike lanes. I am also a parent of two young children who both walk along Bloor and ride their bikes in the Bloor bike lane.

Though I also drive a car to get around, I am concerned that the focus of this bill is to “get drivers where they need to go faster”. As a resident along the Bloor corridor, I am worried that the provincial government is forgetting about the people that live in these neighbourhoods and our safety. The number of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in the city is frankly terrifying – and I can’t imagine that a focus on speeding up cars along city streets is going to help.

What I can say about my experience biking along this corridor is that I feel much safer. I have also witnessed an enormous increase in the number of residents and workers who are cycling – folks commuting to work, children getting to school and to after school activities, and delivery workers. Presumably many of these new riders are moving from cars to bikes which should help reduce traffic congestion. I can also say that having safe cycling routes has helped my family to avoid having a second car.

If the provincial government feels removal of bike lanes in the City of Toronto are truly an important provincial issue - I hope it will be collecting good data to assess whether or not the bike lanes in question are actually causing the issues it suspects, and assessing whether safer/less costly solutions are possible (such as adjusting signal times, or revising a few problematic intersections along the Bloor corridor).

If the data really does suggest that bike lanes are the problem, then I would implore you to first build safe, protected bike lanes on alternate routes before tearing out the current ones in order to keep residents – including our city’s youngest ones - safe.