Hello, This comment is…

Hello, This comment is about the bike lanes in the city of Toronto that are on the larger busier roads such as University, Bloor and Yonge. My Husband and I live on Roxborough Street East just by the Rosedale subway station. Since the Yonge Street bike lanes, between Davisville and Bloor were established and Yonge Street was cut from 4 to 2 lanes, we have seen nothing but congestion during the rush hour periods. The street that we live on, which is 100% residential, often has cars backed up from Yonge Street to Mount Pleasant, idling while they , very slowly, attempt to merge onto a completely backed-up Yonge Street. I have many comments to make about the folly of the bike lanes on major arteries of the City; however, I will keep these comments to addressing the environmental impact. I believe that our residential street is now full of idling cars during rush hour periods, because cars are avoiding Yonge, traversing Mount Pleasant and then using Roxborough Street East to cut across to Yonge as Roxborough Street East is the last street that connects Mount Pleasant to Yonge before St. Clair as all other streets back onto the ravine and are thus dead-ends. This also begs the question about how emergency vehicles reach those dead-end streets during rush hour, that are only accessible by Yonge Street. Nevertheless, I DO NOT understand how reducing major arteries to cars, causing congestion and idling vehicles, improves the environment when in fact, it likely worsens it. Why not put the bike lanes in the residential neighbourhoods, except for motorized bikes including E-Bikes, that should be on the major arteries within the flow of traffic? I am not against bike lanes but I am against congestion and idling vehicles especially in residential neighbourhoods like my own. Thank you