As a Torontonian, I am…

As a Torontonian, I am disgusted by this proposal. This morning the City of Toronto released a report showing that the cost of removing this integral bike lanes would cost us the taxpayers $48 million on top of the $27 million already spent on putting the lanes in, some of which have only just reopened. Explain to me how a premier who claims to be saving us money and reducing the overreach of government can at the same time throw away $75 million of our dollars and at the same time take agency away from the elected municipal representatives that I voted for to make those decisions.

I ride a bike frequently in this city. I also own and drive a car regularly, often to visit my family outside the GTA. I have more experience navigating this city by bike and car than I'm sure many of the people who support this proposal. Removing bike lanes does not reduce congestion. This is a well understood fact of city planning has been proven time and time again in practice. What is proven to reduce congestion is better access to more reliable public transit—something the provincial government has also taken away from my city. I was just starting high school when construction of the Eglinton Crosstown started. Now I'm 6 years into my career our of university and there's no sign of completion. I might add that Eglinton is the only street in this city where I have experienced true gridlock. Not on Bloor, nor College, nor University, and it's due to a construction project the provincial government wanted to adopt and now seem uninterested in completing.

I would also add that removing bike lanes will not change human behaviour. Moving bike routes to secondary roads does not mean the cyclists will move with them. They will continue to use Bloor, College, and University to navigate the city because those are roads it makes sense to do so on, but now they will have to share lanes with vehicles. This will increase congestion and put lives at risk. I have lost more than one person in my life to cycling on a road shared with traffic. I see their ghost bikes around the city and am reminded of the difference that this kind of essential, common sense infrastructure could have made to them and the people that miss them, myself included.

It is a fact that cycling is not only the cleanest way to commute, but also by far the fastest way to traverse the city, and for that reason alone the number of cyclists in Toronto will only continue to grow. Ignoring the need to build infrastructure that supports the growing number of cyclists here is ignorant and inadvisable. Tearing down the existing infrastructure in a transparently political move is despicable. Tear down or not, I will be biking down Bloor to work. Cars can either pass me while I ride in a protected lane, or they can wait behind me on the road. Your choice. Please reconsider this damaging, vindictive proposal to harm the city I live in and love.