As a pedestrian in Toronto,…

As a pedestrian in Toronto, I greatly benefit from the bike lanes. They keep the bikes away from the cars and the streets. Removing the bike lanes would mean the bikes would harass pedestrians and car drivers alike. On top of that, bike lanes do a great job to reduce congestion by removing cars off of the road. They make things safer for bike riders, as all 6 of the accidents involving bikes in Toronto this year have happened off of a bike lane.

The bike lanes in Bloor, Yonge, and University serve as a foundation for the ever-growing bike network in Toronto. These are vital to make Toronto much more of a biking city. You can tell just from the ever-growing bike-share network; clearly there is huge demand in Toronto to bike, and we need the infrastructure to make everyone bike. When you look at European countries, the places where they bike a lot have very good bike infrastructure everywhere. Places like Finland bike even in the cold. This isn't because Europe is special, but because they put in the infrastructure to make it happen. These things can happen in Toronto as well if we keep our bike lanes and expand on them.

The congestion in Toronto, especially on these streets, isn't there because of the bike lanes. It is there because of the amount of cars. There is no real solution for the congestion other than taking cars off of the road. This means investing in public transportation, and yes, more bike lanes. Bike lanes do a great job of moving people more quickly than car lanes do. They take many cars off of the road and make the trip quicker. The congestion in Toronto has grown in spite of the bike lanes, not because of it. And even if it did make congestion worse, removing the bike lanes to get one more lane would barely save any time. When more than 2 hours are spent on the 401, what does 5 minutes saved really mean?

Ripping out the bike lanes will not solve our congestion problems, which leaves it as a solution that hurts pedestrians, bikers, AND car drivers. It is a solution where nobody really wins, but there are many people that absolutely lose. Businesses along the corridor lose a lot more revenue, pedestrians feel less safe, bikers feel less safe, and car drivers feel less safe and have worse congestion.