This bill is detrimental to…

This bill is detrimental to the safety of cyclists and I can tell you that with lived experience. I cycle throughout the fall, spring, summer, and some of the winter and I can tell you that every time I ride on a road without bike lanes I encounter immense risk. The other day I went down a few blocks of Dundas W to pick up some boots (I had no other route with a bike lane) and was almost hit twice by vehicles. There is seemingly only anecdotal evidence provided by the provincial government to indicate the removal of bike lanes will improve traffic. I don’t find that convincing. I also don’t find convincing the opinion that cycling is for pleasure and that cyclists can take winding routes through residential streets to get to where they need to be. There is a reason why Bloor is frequented. Just as drivers desire efficiency, so do cyclists.

As a city, our aim is to reduce our emissions, I hardly understand how eliminating one of the most popular alternatives — often faster than public transit — will serve to push us towards this goal. Seemingly every city I visit is pushing forward with their bike lanes, yet our province wants to see our city regress.

What this bill will achieve is not faster routes for drivers, if anything, additional lanes will lead to more speeding, which will then lead to inevitable pedestrian and cyclist deaths. Why would we want faster cars within the downtown? If a commute must be slowed by a few minutes to save lives, so be it?

As a province we must ask ourselves what we value more. The lives of our constituents or an unproven decrease in the daily time spent commuting for drivers. And I additionally add that it is conjecture—heretofore—that bike lanes slow traffic to the intolerable extent the province anecdotally suggests.

It has been known for some time now that introducing further lanes will only lead to an increased ridership which in turn will erase any efficiencies sought to be gained. This is known as induced demand and has been covered by a number of academics — evidently not by our province. Do we want more cars on the road?

What also stands to reason is that every cyclist route eliminated will then lead to citizens—who would have cycled prior—ordering an uber or driving to their destination instead. I hardly see how this will ease congestion for drivers.

What has been proven to increase traffic is the construction we see seemingly everywhere in our city. To reduce congestion, increased coordination around the development of these sites should be focused upon, not cyclist lanes — where no research seems to exist. Additionally, to remove these lanes, how long will traffic be impacted? And at what cost? And at what risk given—as I’ve mentioned numerous times—the lack of concrete evidence?

Thank you for your time.