Cities are indeed "creatures…

Cities are indeed "creatures of the province," so the government of Ontario has the *right* to intervene in Toronto. But *rights* presume the discretion about when & where to use those rights. My neighbour is grateful that, while I have the *right* to operate a jack-hammer from 9-5, 365 days/year, I proceed with discretion and, so far, have never used that right.

The city of Toronto developed a broad transportation plan with the widest possible public consultations. I am unclear what else could have been done to include public input.

In the meantime, what seems to have generated a backlash, and now a political intervention by the province, is the extension of bike lanes into Etobicoke.

My wife and I both bike daily to work along these bike lanes. They have helped to save time, but more importantly the lanes offer us a way to arrive safely at our destinations. Does this come at the expense of motorists? To a degree, of course, but the average time added along the Bloor corridor is measured in single-digit minutes (according to the official statistics), and that is orecisely what I see as I bike along during the morning and afternoon/evening commute. The line of cars is longer than it used to be, but it's not nearly as long as the opponents of bike lanes claim it is. The rest of the car network seems to have absorbed much of the extra traffic.

If something was wrong with the rollout of the bikelanes, it wasn't creating the lanes themselves. It was not simultaneously offering a major improvement to public transportation options along the same corridors. The Ontario line will help in some places, but not in Etobicoke. Line 2 and its capillaries need to move beyond 1970s technology and design. With fundamental improvements and a diverse array of transportation options, people will be able to get to and fro as they do in all major cities around the globe.

If the Government of Ontario wants Toronto to thrive, it should indeed intervene here, but not by rolling back what the city has developed. Instead, it should intervene by supporting a major expansion of public transit options. Not an incremental, fits-and-starts, subject-to-the-political-tides expansion, but something visionary that will ensure that Toronto remains a world-class city.