The bike lanes have made it…

The bike lanes have made it a safe way for me to travel to work from the west end (near High Park) to Toronto General Hospital downtown via Bloor and then University avenue. The bike lanes along those routes have made a world of difference in how safe I feel and I am so appreciative of them. I also often stop along the way home to pick up items for dinner, either ready made food or ingredients. I have shopped at a lot more businesses as a result as when on the subway I did not know a lot of these businesses existed. The simple fact that we have a dedicated bike lane will entice more people to use cycling as a mode of transport. These routes are also along subway lines so there really is no need for cars at all along these routes as we have options. To spend money on removing these lanes and to ignore the data surrounding bike lanes would be gross violation of trust. Ancedotal stories from drivers are not data. I work on "hospital row" and I see traffic moving easily and cyclists moving safely. Any extra money should be spent on infill housing to house people in this city, not to destroy infrastructure that improves the quality of life for its citizens. As we become a more dense city, we, like other major international cities, will need to move away from a car culture and focus on better ways of getting around that allows interaction with our city and the people and businesses around us. There are world class cities who do not rely on cars choking up their streets and if we want to be compared to them we will need to move in that direction. The bike lanes improve health, allow us to integrate in our city more readily and reduce smog. Perhaps instead of punishing those of us who live, work and move around in this city, take a harder look at the things like uber and lyft, what are those numbers of drivers doing to the congestion, how many come into our city every day, what is this doing to the loss of funding and ridership on public transit. Lets have real data, out in the open and make evidence base decisions.
The province needs to focus on bigger issues like healthcare, housing and education and allow the cities to run themselves in terms of infrastructure. Allow those of us who live, work and play in our cities to make the decisions that will impact our day to day life and the safety of ourselves and our children.