I am a downtown Toronto…

I am a downtown Toronto resident who drives daily in the city. This bill infuriates me on so many levels. I am strongly against the passing of this bill and here are my key reasons:

1. Bike are Traffic: Bike traffic is a reality of traffic in Toronto. We have a high volume of bikes moving through the city and we need to acknowledge this and provide effective ways to manage that traffic - in some cases this may mean reducing a car lane and that is ok. When bikes have their own lane they don’t slow down car traffic - this is a good thing! Having to drive below the speed limit because you can’t safely pass a slow bike sucks and this happens all the time when you don’t have bike lanes. Does building bike lanes cause construction delays - yes. But that is a short term problem for a long term fix for overall congestion.

2. Bike Lanes Increase Safety: I am thankful for every Toronto road I drive on that has bike lanes - the bikes stay in their lane and I’m not worried about hitting them. How is this a bad thing? It also often means that bikes are more likely to stay off sidewalks keeping pedestrians safer.

3. Waste of Money: This bill proposes removing lanes that have already been built (in some cases very recently). How does this make sense! Not only is their removal a waste of money but the construction related to removing them will cause more traffic delays. In addition, managing the new process required to provide ongoing oversight and approval of city bike lanes at the provincial level will require additional, long-term staffing costs. I do not want my tax dollars going towards this type of initiative.

4. Jurisdiction: Since when is the construction of bike lanes a provincial issue? Doesn’t the province have more important things to deal with like health care, education and a housing crisis! My guess is that if Queens Park was not in Toronto this bill would never have been raised. If the politicians that need to drive to Queens Park have an issue with the lanes (which surprise surprise the lanes listed in the bill are all around Queens Park) then raise that issue as a Toronto Citizen at City hall - this is an example political overreach at it’s worse. Cities conduct extensive consultation and research to identify where lanes should go - that process is where any issues around lanes (by both citizens and businesses) should be raised - locally.