Ripping out Toronto bike…

Ripping out Toronto bike lanes is a terrible proposition, and takes no consideration of data or all the work that's gone into creating them in the first place. There is ZERO evidance removing them will 'help' traffic.

Removing the lanes will:
Reduce safety (look at the data)
Increase congestion (the extra space is not enough to create extra lanes, and if they did, intensification, and construction will still create congestion. Plus people like me will be forced to buy a car and start driving, as I won't feel safe bringing my family to daycare/school/swimclass)
It will cost a fortune.

Most people will still bike, but there safety will decrease. This bill makes zero effort to explain how this is a good idea. And it gives zero metrics for proving that it will attain the desired result. When the bike lanes where installed, there were years of work put into proving they were viable etc. And now we require zero work to prove that ripping them out is a good idea?

A personal statement:

I graduated from UofT in 2005. While I was a student I commuted to school on Bloor. It was dangerous but I was young. I was t-boned once but was luckily fine. After my studies I moved overseas, and just this year an opportunity arose to return to the city that I love, with my young family. I specifically chose to move to a location on Bloor again because I was excited by all the positive cycling infrastructure that had been put in place in the past 20 years. My wife and I chose to live car-free in the city because the new cycling infrastructure made me feel safe to carry my toddler to his daycare and swim lessons on Bloor via bicycle. TTC is good for long trips, but for short trips cycling is far more efficient. And nearly ALL of our trips are short trips. My family would be devastated if the cycle lanes we depend on are ripped out. We would be forced to rethink our lifestyle. Buying a car would be a likely result. We moved to Toronto because it's a safe and practical city to live car-free. I honestly can't believe we are on the brink of reversing everything.