We need to look at this as a…

We need to look at this as a whole. Private vehicles take up a lot of space in our cities. Unfortunately, trying to solve traffic congestion from only the view of cars will not work. As cities continue to grow and more cars end up on roads, any new infrastructure (new roads, more lanes etc.) will reach capacity and we'll be back at square one. You can only provide so much new infrastructure before there is no room or resources left. Instead, improvements to active and public transportation methods should be made to encourage more people to make trips without a private vehicle. Many trips that people make are a very short distance that could be easily walked, biked, or by taking public transit (City of Toronto, Page23-24, 2012). We can also connect our cities through higher order transit for those longer intercity trips. No one likes being stuck in traffic, sitting behind a wheel. In a bus or train, they at least have the capacity to do something else while they wait to reach their destination, and you don't get massive congestion with people or bikes like you do cars. Removing the ability of municipalities to implement bike lanes where a car lane would be removed is giving the Provincial Government to much power over municipalities who understand their cities better than anyone else. As well, money was spent on implementing existing bike lanes, and now for more money to be spent to remove them, is not right as that money would be much more valuable if used elsewhere (such as our struggling healthcare system), especially when future parties will likely want to re-implement these bike lanes, which would cost even more. There are no benefits to anyone other than the government trying to win some votes because they claim they can help eliminate traffic by allowing more cars on the road.