As a citizen, I use multiple…

As a citizen, I use multiple modes of tranportation: walking, biking, bus/streetcar/subway, and driving. Keeping the bike lanes is of the utmost importance to me regardless of the method I am using at a given time, because (1) they are space-efficient and reduce congestion in other modalities, (2) they increase the safety of streets by reducing traffic speeds, and (3) they are better for the environment (fewer fuel emissions, less wear and tear and maintenance required). I imagine you know all of this, though, because the transportation experts working in government would have told you these and other findings. Yet this government still want to mandate that municipally installed and paid for bike lanes be removed, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars. This is a waste of public funds and oversteps the bounds of the provincial government. The suggestion that bike lanes be built on nearby streets is ridiculous, as (1) believe it or not, people want to bike to places that are on main streets, and need infrastructure to make that safe, (2) nearby streets, particularly in a city like Toronto, are winding and add extensive distances to trips. Both of these factors disincentivize people to actually use the infrastructure. As someone who cycles in Toronto to places on main streets, removing the bike lanes will not remove me from the main street. And of course I will not sacrifice myself to riding in the door gutter as vehicles try to squeeze around me at illegally-close distances. Instead, I will ride as a "vehicular cyclist," taking up an entire lane as is my legal right. Enjoy the resulting congestion!