I do not support this bill…

I do not support this bill. The primary reason is that I don’t agree that the province should be able to make decisions about bike lanes which are a municipal issue. Whether or not a bike lane is impacting traffic/safety in a particular Neighbourhood is something that must be negotiated by those who are directly impacted, and not by the provincial government which is seeming guided by a car-focussed agenda and involves people who are outside of the affected areas.
I have lived in downtown Toronto, east of the Don Valley, for more than 30 years. I do not drive a car and, until retirement a year ago, commuted to work primarily by bike, in addition to TTC or walking. I began cycling in Toronto before there were many bike lanes. I cycle defensively and feel relatively comfortable sharing the road with cars in situations where both driver and cyclist consider each other, and neither feel ‘entitled’ to the road, which sadly is not always the case (in either case). However, not all people feel comfortable cycling on Toronto streets, and indeed there is always going to be a learning curve for new cyclists, a period of time where a cyclist becomes more confident on the road. This takes time, and many people won’t immediately jump on their bike just because a bike lane is built in their neighborhood. Is this the reason for the apparently few cyclist on the new Bloor St West cycle lanes? Maybe there are other problems? How can I know - I do not live in that neighborhood, and neither do the majority in power (and their constituents) in the provincial government. However, my experiences in other areas of Toronto support bike lanes and the continued improvement of the cycling infrastructure.
I used to live at Avenue Rd and Davenport and commuted by bike along Avenue Rd/University Ave to my job at a hospital. The other route option at the time was Bay St but the bus lanes made this very dangerous. University Avenue was scary - the speed of drivers on a downtown street like that was unreasonable. I have more recently travelled by bike on the new University Ave bike lanes and what an improvement! I felt so much safer. Please don’t remove those, they are one of the only good North/South options for cyclists (and despite the lanes, the cars still seem to be moving along nicely). I also feel very positively about the Bloor St Bike Lane. I used to often travel by bike between the east end and my children’s high school near Bloor and Runnymede. Travelling along Bloor St without the bike lanes was not comfortable due primarily to parked cars (‘dooring’ fear) and the amount of traffic. So I biked out of my way along Davenport, or south along College St, which added considerably to the commute time. I was so happy when the Bloor bike lanes (both east and west) were installed. I should also point out that I discovered a number of new shops along this route because of these easily travelled new bike routes. Please don’t remove these bike lanes.
With the installation of bike lanes along major east/west downtown routes, I have experienced the change in the number of cyclists commuting. For example, 30 years ago there were few commuters travelling by bike along Gerrard St. There are now many cyclists travelling that route. The same can be said about College St. Where I worked at Sickkids, our bike storage rooms are now always full.
Finally, a point about the loss of car lanes when bike lanes are installed. When I cycle along busy, main streets with multiple lanes but without bike lanes, what I observe is that stopped cars and delivery trucks often block one of the lanes essentially forcing the use of only one lane by moving cars. How is this different to having a bike lane there!?
Obviously, I am a cycling advocate with limited experience of driving in Toronto. However, I do live here and am willing to consider the experiences of others who also live here. I do not believe that people living outside our city should be making decisions about
traffic and transport in a place they know little or nothing about. That is the job of the municipality.