The province and Premier are…

The province and Premier are rightly prioritizing building new housing for the people of Ontario. New houses and new residents create new travel needs. People will use the transit systems that the province builds and it is therefore very important that Ontario builds the transit systems that make sense in each region. In a busy city like Toronto or Hamilton the roads are already congested and new cars on the roads will make it worse unless we use public space smartly.

Smart usage of our streets includes bike lanes to absorb the large demand for short-trips to local businesses or events that surrounding neighbourhoods create. Absorption of this demand frees up our roadways for longer trips that need to be made by car. The residents of Ontario can all appreciate a pleasant walk or short bike ride to a local store. The province removing bike lanes unilaterally means that the space freed is taken up again by locals who don't feel safe enough to walk or bike a short trip. Instead, good faith negotiating between municipalities and the province should be used to address both provincial and local demands for our streets. This bill does not balance the different demands in a healthy way.

If this bill passes, the Ministry of Transportation will be responsible for a large number of very local decisions across the province. The Ministry's resources, and that of the government of Ontario more broadly, should not be directed to reviewing and fighting cities on traffic hotspots. It is my concern that the Ministry of Transportation's resources are not adequate to give each local decision the due consideration and time it deserves. Especially so in the context of cities implementing more bike lanes to help reduce carbon emmissions. The end result will be rubber-stamping every bike lane or denying every bike lane. Niether situation is desirable. Both scenarios work at cross purposes with the municipalities of Ontario which share the provinces goal to make our roads more pleasant and reduce congestion.

Further, the public comments made by the Minister and the Premier do not appear consistent with an intent to negotiate in good faith. The comments are instead aimed at unilaterally changing small spaces of cities without consideration of the whole city as a system. There is nothing in this bill binding the Minister's decision making to any metric or plan consistent with the data or projections provided by municipalities.

Finally, this bill lacks language binding the Minister to safety considerations for those people who bike, or must bike, regardless of the existence of bicycle infrastructure. The province's goal to save people time is a good goal that should be pursued. However, it should not be pursued at the cost of injuries to people using our roads. Bicycle lanes, whether they remove a lane of traffic or not, help to naturally slow drivers and keep them alert. Alert drivers improve safety for themselves, people crossing traffic, and people biking. These safety outcomes are important and should be part of any provincial bill touching road safety.

I urge lawmakes to amend this bill or vote it down as written.

Thank you for consideration of my comment.