I am not in favour of this…

I am not in favour of this proposal.

First, adding red tape and beueaucracy for municipalities to wade through will not help Ontario communities to build much needed transportation infrastructure. Furthermore, I believe the provincial government is overstepping it's bounds by dictating decisions that should be left to local governments and city planners. There are a host of very important issues that I would prefer the provincial government dedicate their time to dealing with, and let municipalities decide what transportation infrastructure will best serve their communities.

Next, like many Ontarians, I am a motorist, a cyclist, a transit rider and a pedestrian. As a cyclist who commutes to work daily by bicycle I consider safe, separated bicycle lanes to be critical transportation infrastructure, like sidewalks. Unfortunately, many Ontarians aren't as lucky as I am to have safe cycling infrastructure in place that works for their commutes. If this were the case, this proposal would be met with as much disapproval as a proposal to replace sidewalks with vehicle lanes. It would be unthinkable.

As a motorist, I can empathize with our Premier and his supporters. I too am annoyed when driving my car and being forced to mix with cyclists on roadways, and I often get anxious when driving on certain roads in my community where cyclists are forced to mix with motorized vehicles. This is simply unsafe, but the solution is not to try to stop people from using bicycles for transportation. The solution is to create and maintain safe infrastructure for ALL modes of transportation.

As a transit user, I'd like to point out that safe cycling infrastructure supports transit investment by making it easier for people to access stations. In cities with extensive cycling networks, it also saves costs for other infrastructure, simply because bicycle parking is immensely cheaper than automobile parking.

Lastly, as an Ontarian who does not reside in Toronto, I am dismayed to see my elected officials in provincial parliament creating laws that appear to be based on personal grudges limited to a single city hundreds of kilometers from my home. This proposed policy is clearly tone deaf to the needs of ALL Ontarians and as I've come to expect, is not only Toronto-centric but likely to be expensive and ineffective. I strongly urge you to abandon this proposal and focus on issues more squarely within provincial jurisdiction.