I have a Bike Share Toronto…

I have a Bike Share Toronto membership and a carshare membership. In the last 4 years I have taken over 1,100 bikeshare trips and almost 150 carshare trips on the very roads and bike lanes targeted by this bill. As a Toronto resident, cyclist, driver and citizen, I strongly opposite both portions of this bill and continued provincial meddling in municipal matters.

The bike lane removal proposal defies basic math and observed data:
• Bike Share Toronto alone is projected to serve almost 7 million trips this year. Converting those trips back into car trips would dramatically increase congestion.
• System ridership has grown 20% annually as more new riders feel safer in the growing protected bike lane network. Every year the growing bike lane network shifts trips to a form which uses less road space.
• Removing bike lanes would force these trips back into cars, creating more congestion.
• Each bike trip converted to a car trip requires significantly more road space not just while moving, but also while parked. Every finished car trip occupies a car-sized space in the city that's not available for any other use.
• Documented evidence shows that removing bike lanes increases driver-caused cyclist injuries and deaths, directly contradicting Vision Zero goals.

Putting it simply: removing or slowing the growth of the bike lane network means fewer safe cycling options, more car trips, more congestion, and more injuries and fatalities, which this government considers an appropriate appetizer and diversion ahead of the main course: expediting a new highway through environmentally sensitive lands that would allow a few friends to make a few billion paving over the Greenbelt.