Reducing bike lanes is…

Reducing bike lanes is ableist. Driving is only open to those 16 and above to those with sufficient sight, mobility, and cognitive skills to operate high horsepower motorized vehicles. It also precludes those who have had strokes, or live with certain medical conditions including photosensitivities, etc. Many seniors can no longer drive, but cycling or using power wheelchairs and scooters in bike lanes give independence and opportunities to social networks that they are otherwise denied. For those under 16, those with lived experience with certain disabilities, or for those who have aged beyond their driving years, driving and an obsession with prioritizing independent car transportation limits their mobility, social networks, opportunities to go to events or appointments, and opportunities to take jobs that they are skilled to do, due to lack of non-driving access. These all impact the real physical, mental, social and economic health and well-being of our community members. The disability community is the largest minority in the world, the ,ost intersectional ine, and the only community that we can join at any time. Why ostracize so many Ontarians, needlessly. To focus solely on driving is nearsighted hubris.

This is all before we explore the elitist privilege to own a car that only creates larger divides to the aforementioned opportunities outside of the scope of ableism.

If you want the distraction to focus on bike lanes instead of opposition to Hwy 413, consider me distracted. IF you want to sell land to cronies for profit, make it a passenger rail line to carry people easily from east to west between neighbouring communities and not the hub and spoke model of “First to Union Station, then final destination”. Sell the land, but build community train stations with bikeable paths and service-filled communities around those stations. It’s a gold mine that doesn’t need to follow an outdated model of pave a path to freedom which actually leads to isolation, anger, and avoidable fatalities.