I oppose Bill 212. The…

I oppose Bill 212.

The province should not dictate to municipalities where and how to build their bike lanes, nor should it target any specific streets to have their bike lanes removed.

Protected bike lanes make all road users safer including the drivers.

- Adding bike lanes to roads makes them narrower and easier for pedestrians to cross and limiting the time they are exposed to being struck by a vehicle. They further separate people walking from moving cars making less likely for a car to strike a pedestrian.
- They separate cyclists from the flow of traffic and from pedestrians on the sidewalk making collisions between people walking, cars and people riding bicycles less likely.
- The narrowed road naturally slow down the drivers reducing speeding and making an collision less likely to cause serious injuries and damage.

I bike with my child on the Bloor bike lane to the ROM and I can do that because I feel safe on the protected bike lane. This is faster than taking TTC and more convenient than driving (not to mention trying to find parking). This is my preferred choice of transportation in Toronto.

As for the gridlock and bad traffic, there is no solution to car traffic except viable alternatives to driving.

Traffic on Bloor was always bad, it has nothing to do with bike lanes.

Cars on the roads are not water in pipes as each driver acts according to their own best interests and does not follow the laws of physics. You cannot successfully apply "common sense" to this problem.

The congestion is caused by the limiting capacity of intersections, not the roads themselves. Not enough cars can get through the intersection to saturate the capacity of road lanes. Adding more lanes will not solve the congestion. Many congested streets in Toronto don't even have bike lanes.

The provincial government should not spend taxpayer money on undoing municipal infrastructure projects and should instead focus on fixing the Gardiner, finishing the Eglinton LRT, and developing non-car-related methods for alleviating traffic in the city.

Removing bike lanes will make the roads less safe for everyone.

I further oppose Bill 212 and its provisions exempting Highway 413 from the environmental assessment. This move bypasses safeguards needed for sustainable infrastructure planning.

This decision disregards the highway’s effects on Ontario’s ecosystems, Greenbelt, and communities; it ignores severe, documented threats to local watersheds, air quality, habitats, and farmland. Bill 212 allows the project to cut through vital Greenbelt lands and major watersheds that provide clean water to GTA.

Experts highlight Highway 413’s release of additional carbon dioxide into the air, undermining our climate commitments.

Independent assessments exist to protect the public’s interest, yet with Bill 212, the government will controls the environmental review skirting accountability.

You should withdraw Bill 212 and advocate for comprehensive environmental reviews of such projects based on the reasons I outlined above.

Sincerely,