I write to comment against…

I write to comment against the implementation of bill 212, especially sections revolving around the provinces mean to overstep on municipal decisions on street design.

There are many issues with the bill so I will split it up into sections. They will be as follows:

- Reduced economic outcome
- Increased gridlock
- Increased KSI leading to increase in medical expenses
- Reduced mobility
- Wedge issue populism

== Reduced economic outcome ==
Studies have concluded that the economic activity increases in areas where bike lanes are installed. one such study is the "ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY of Bike Lanes in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods" (referenced below in links). Similar studies across Toronto, and the entire globe has found the same conclusions. Bike lanes are good for business. By removing bike lanes the province is hurting local businesses and through that tax income. No sane fiscal conservative would start killing small businesses. Local BIAs has also come out against removing bike lanes as they see the economic value that

== Increased gridlock ==
Though the province has yet to announce what they would like current streets with bike lanes to look like, we are most likely looking into just adding one more lane for parked cars. Not only will this not speed up the traffic for drivers, but since drivers will now have to share a lane with those who still cycle and has destinations on streets currently with bike lanes, all cars will now be slowed to the speed of the slowest bike. This street design is what was seen on Bloor street before the installation of bike lanes. Additionally, according to studies from Vancouver (and TUM and others), the capacity of a bike lane is higher than that of a driving lane, so in reality, removing a bike lane is removing large amounts of capacity from the road.

== Increased KSI leading to increase in medical expenses ==
Removing safe street design will lead to more KSIs (Killed / Seriously Injured) as speeds increase and transportation modes mix more. While Canada ranks better on KSI compared to the United States, Canada ranks much worse than most other western countries, especially those with good complete street infrastructure. Besides the fact that more people will die (which on its own should be enough), medical expenses for the province will rise as a result of removing bike infrastructure (or will not lower due to the province blocking its installation). This is money that could go towards the public transit infrastructure projects that the province seems to have a hard time managing within budget.

== Reduced mobility ==
Many people cycling in this province does so as their mean of transportation to jobs, school, university, medical appointments, errands, friend/family visits and so on. Some does this out of convenience as it is in many places the fastest way to get around (due to the lack of good public transit), but for many it is economic reasons or accessibility reasons. Removing bike infrastructure and halting its installation removes the ability for a lot of both low income residents and for people with disabilities who are today enjoying the freedom of getting around using the bike infrastructure.

== Wedge issue populism ==
The government seems to be painting bike lanes as a "radical left" piece of infrastructure, but bike infrastructure is neither right or left leaning. As an example, the big push for bike infrastructure in London, England came from Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London, a fairly right leaning politician. The mayor saw and opportunity for increased economic activity along side a way to move more people more efficiently in a large city. Trying to paint removal of bike lanes as a populist saviour policy is a draconian way of driving people in the province further apart, when we should instead be working on solutions.

== Conclusion ==
While the government has painted the bill as the way to reduce gridlock, nothing in the bill will do anything but harm:
- People, realistically to the sound of many more traffic deaths across the city
- Local businesses that might have to close down due to reduced economic activity
- Discourse as the people in the province are wedged further apart.

The blood of all above will be on the hands of the PCs who with this bill is showing either an incredible amount of lack of knowledge, or a deliberate approach to harming the province. No fiscal conservative in their right mind would push a bill like this. It remains to be seen if those exist in the province.