I am writing to express my…

I am writing to express my outrage at Bill 212’s petty, ignorant, and irresponsible assault on existing and future bike lanes in Ontario.
The Province must keep its hands off municipalities’ bike lanes because:
1) Bike lanes save lives. Every year Torontonians die getting around by bike due to car-centred infrastructure and culture. If the Province removes existing bike lanes, and quashes the new ones that are needed, there will be even more cyclists’ blood on Toronto’s streets.
2) The planet is on the brink of irreversible climate catastrophe. Even if bike lanes did significantly slow down motor vehicle traffic – and they don't (see below!), our precious little commute times will become an irrelevancy when an unhinged climate destroys infrastructure, and the fabric of society unravels into a dystopian world. Motor vehicle travel accounts for huge amounts of emissions (and yes, e-vehicles are a part of this, through every stage of their manufacturing and delivery process, and the destructive road system needed to support motor vehicles, often occupied by a single person.)
Cycling, in contrast, is the most efficient form of urban transportation. It is the future of cities. Cycling reduces lethal pollution (and thus healthcare costs), staves off climate catastrophe, reduces gridlock – every cyclist is a potential driver, especially for local trips! – and creates healthy neighbourhoods that people want to live in – not drive through.
It has long been clear that for Premier Ford, Toronto is just a commuting route. This is not what the people of Toronto want. Bike lanes have vastly increased cycling volumes, and many more people would replace a significant portion of their local driving trips with cycling if infrastructure and culture made it safe to do so.
3) Like pedestrian zones, bike lanes attract young brains and talent to cities. They greatly enhance the quality of life for young and old. Bill 212 takes Ontario in the opposite direction of the great cities of the world — Paris, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Dublin, Montréal, and on and on. Bill 212 shoves Ontario into a backwater.
4) Bill 212 demonstrates and enables unacceptable overreach by the Province. Municipalities should have the right to choose urban design and infrastructure that works for them.
5) Perhaps the most enraging thing about Bill 212 is that ripping out bike lanes will NOT significantly reduce commute times. This has been shown over and over, and was included in a report by Toronto City staff presented to City Council Nov. 14, 2024.
6) The City of Toronto has confirmed that removing the bike lanes on Bloor, University, and Yonge Avenues, which is one of the purposes of Bill 212, would cost the Ontario taxpayer around $48 million, and also sink the $27 million investment of installing the lanes in the first place. It would also require nine months of construction-related lane closures that would make car travel times much worse in the near term. And after all this, as noted above, the impact on driver travel times after the lanes are removed would be minimal. (See staff report presented to Toronto City Council on Nov. 14, 2024).
7) If Queen’s Park is serious about reducing road congestion, it should levy a hefty tax on single occupancy of cars, and invest in a public transit system throughout the GTA that is so excellent and well-connected that even the affluent will want to take it, as one finds in many European cities.
8) The “drivers vs. cyclists” mentality that underlies Bill 212 is petty, ignorant, and unacceptable. Most people who use a car would love to be able to swap it out at least sometimes, but hesitate because of unsafe infrastructure. Almost everyone who gets around by bike understands the need for some motor vehicles.
I have lived in Toronto for some 36 years. At this point in my life, I could buy any car I wanted. But I have always chosen to get around by bicycle, for health and environmental reasons. Although I am now a senior, since the creation of some decent bike lanes in the city – notably the flagship ones that Doug Ford wants to rip up through Bill 212 – I have been getting around by bike more than ever – to shop, to go to classes, concerts and shows, to visit friends and family, to deliver meals on wheels as a volunteer. My travel times have decreased because of these bike lanes – why do cyclists never enter into the Ford government’s calculus of so-called "commute" times?
Bill 212 is not bad policy and bad governance. It must be repealed.