I am a resident of Ottawa…

I am a resident of Ottawa and I am a driver, cyclist, transit rider, and pedestrian. I am writing in opposition to Bill 212, for the following reasons:

First, the bill is an insult to municipalities that have used their resources to build bike lanes. Ottawa has spent a small amount of money in recent years improving bike infrastructure, including some lanes that the province may consider to "remove" a lane of traffic. This bill essentially proposes to steal that investment from Ottawa taxpayers by confiscating infrastructure that the city chose to spend its own revenues installing. This flies in the face of good fiscal management and smacks of overreach by the provincial government.

Secondly, this bill would not reduce traffic. Instead, it would contribute to locking Ontarians into a cycle of induced demand, encouraging the perpetual building more and more roads for more and more cars. Bikes are smaller than cars. Not every trip needs to be a car trip. On the contrary, it is essential that we cut the share of car trips in our transportation mix, for many reasons, including the need to cut our transportation emissions to help address the urgent, civilizational challenge of responding to climate change.

Third, the bill is being proposed despite evidence that it is unnecessary and unwise. Ontario businesses have noted that bike lanes, even on busy streets like Bloor, improve their sales and make their customers safer because there are more eyes on the street and because the cyclists who are among their clientele are not getting maimed outside their shop doors. CBC has reported that the City of Toronto collected data over a 12 month period since the Bloor lanes were installed. It showed limited to no impacts on motor vehicle travel times and no issues for emergency services were reported. Instead, construction and cars were blocking intersections.

Finally and essentially, this bill would make our roads less safe for cyclists, who are (I feel this bears reinforcing) legitimate users of the road and not just gadflies seeking to create inconvenience for motorists by having the temerity to request some basic consideration in the design of our roads. In September, my friend's beloved dad was killed: an experienced cyclist, he was struck and left for dead by an unknown motorist while riding along a street with no bike lane. He was only 50 years old and has two young grandchildren. This bill is an insult to his memory. The motorist has not had the decency to present themself to give my friend's family closure, but I can imagine that they may wish that they had had the benefit of a separated bike lane to prevent the tragedy they caused.

There is a lot left to do to improve safety for cyclists: just this morning my city councillor confirmed that another Ottawa cyclist has died from injuries sustained in a cycling accident. All I ask is that the province butt out.

Thank you for your attention to this comment.