In the 2023-24 fiscal year,…

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the government of Ontario will invest $8.6 billion into public transit and $3.3 billion into provincial highways. From this, it's clear that the province is committed to making transportation faster, safer, and more affordable for all Ontarians, regardless of which mode they choose. However, by removing bicycle lanes in downtown Toronto, Bill 212 works against this goal by unreasonably favouring cars, public transit, and walking over cycling.

While the average travel speed by car during peak periods in downtown Toronto is only 18 km/h and the average speed of the streetcars can be as low as 9 km/h, bikes generally travel at around 16 km/h. Thus, in the city centre, the speed of bicycles are comparable to other modes of transport but without the need to wait at a station or find a parking garage. Therefore, discouraging cycling will lengthen travel times rather than shortening them. In addition, replacing bicycle lanes with parking or more traffic lanes will allow more cars to drive through the city centre instead of bypassing it, making the streets more dangerous for the high volumes of cyclists and pedestrians in downtown. The overall effect of replacing the bike lanes in Toronto's city centre with traffic lanes will be to increase the number of traffic accidents while making it slower and less affordable to get around. In the city centre, it is especially important to achieve a healthy modal share, which is why the government of Ontario needs to take a more balanced approach to transportation by investing in cycling infrastructure, just like it has done for public transit and highways.