As a driver and cyclist, I…

As a driver and cyclist, I think this is ill-conceived legislation. In urban areas, the focus should be on moving people, not just private cars. More space efficient modes -- cycling, walking, scootering, public transit -- hold the promise to move far more people for a given piece of road network.

So, the notion that the default answer for repurposing an existing lane dedicated to vehicles for a more space-efficient mode should be "no" is exactly what you *don't* want to do if you're aim is to keep people moving in cities.

That said, planning should be data driven. I have no issue in having a requirement to show that bike lanes are being used and that the shift in lanes from vehicles to cycling (for example) is successfully moving more people. If lanes aren't successful, though, urban planners should have options. Perhaps changes are needed to encourage cyclists to use this route. Or perhaps this route will be underutilized until it is connected to other parts of the cycling network. Or -- in some cases -- perhaps a route is ill-conceived and just won't work. Let the data be the guide.

There will never be a way to accomodate never-ending growth of use of private, often single occupancy private vehicles in dense urban centres. Measures like this one, biased towards that mode, will always be doomed to fail as there is no way to significantly increase the road capacity in dense urban areas to accomodate limitless growth. The only way forward to to use the roadway more efficiently (intelligent traffic systems, smarter planning and encouraging more space efficient nodes).