I object to this legislation…

I object to this legislation. It is anti-democratic, running roughshod over local decision making. Removing existing bike lanes without installing replacement bike routes following the same level of public consultation as when they were introduced is particularly egregious. Removing existing bike lanes is based on flawed logic. Bike usage statistics being quoted by elected government officials are highly mis-leading. The low bike usage numbers being quoted are not based on local data but use aggregated data for the Census Metropolitan Area, including the car-dependant 905 cities and rural communities like Caledon, East Gwillimbury and Whitchurch-Stouffville. Biking data for these communities is not comparable to central Toronto. Non-commuter bike trips for shopping, social, recreation and other purposes are also not counted. Existing bike lanes on Bloor, University or Yonge Street are part of a network of bike routes. Removing safe cycling infrastructure will discourage bike users likely leading to increased automobile traffic, more death and injury for bikers. And this does absolutely nothing to improve traffic congestion on other major routes like the DVP, Gardiner, Highway 401. This is very flawed public policy.