Bike lanes are an essential…

Bike lanes are an essential part of the city. Any and ALL bike lanes offer accessibility to all Torontonians and visitors to the city. To remove any single bike line is to reinforce that one must be wealthy in order to travel the city freely and with ease. The TTC is limited in its operations (and needs to be addressed), but bike lanes offer a more equal approach to transit for many. Bikes are relatively inexpensive, easy to store, have lower maintenance costs, and take up far less space than cars, trucks, and busses on the road. Not to mention the obvious: bikes aren’t puffing out chemicals that we can’t avoid inhaling when they are around.

The province’s fight against congestion is not with cyclists but with cars and trucks. Restricting vehicle access and increasing pedestrian access has been proven to increase economic growth. Read the studies, listen to consumers and business owners.

In addition to increasing movement within the city, bike lanes offer a near-zero emission method of transportation. As this current government continues to outright ignore and increase the speed at which our environment and planet are deteriorating, Ontarians are being offered less and less, and often restricted from using, daily methods of existing that can reduce our environmental impact.

Not to mention the massive waste of money that this will cost to remove bike lanes and the additional congestion the the construction will create is irresponsible and an attack on the livelihood of Ontarians. The Ford government has been embarrassingly proud of its work stripping social services and the healthcare system literally killing Ontarians. The cost of removing these bike lanes shouldn’t even be considered something that WE can afford. We need housing, healthcare, public transportation, and so many more well-funded social services. Bike lanes are a social service. Bike lanes are part of public health. Bike lanes are one of the great connections and equalizers for Ontarians.

To paraphrase a quote from a former Colombian mayor: A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.

In this economic hellscape where the rich are getting richer at the cost of the destruction of the middle class and the punishment of the poor, bike lanes are one of the few public spaces where all are welcome regardless of their socio-economic status.

Ontarians deserve a government that cares. And unfortunately we haven’t had that in a long time. But to see this government intentionally punish Ontarians to favour cars and trucks is an insult.

Doug Ford isn’t even trying to hide the fact that he’s in the pocket of corporate interests and that he doesn’t know how to act in the interest of Ontarians. He’s is negligent and a danger to the province of Ontario and to the evolution of this province and this country. He and his party members should be ashamed of themselves and should actually speak to their constituents to see what we want. The man is a fool — no question about it — and his decision to remove bike lanes is just another bingo stamp on the ‘our premier doesn’t care about us, just his rich friends’ bingo card that we Ontarians have had the misfortune of carrying around with us since 2018.