This portion of Bill 212 has…

This portion of Bill 212 has been overfocused on by the government in an attempt to portray Bill 212 as a bike lane bill and to hide all the other items they are trying to push through. However, even though this section only takes up 1.5 of the 28 pages of Bill 212 I still want to talk about the reasons bike lanes are great and how this an overstep of Provincial powers.

Bike lanes are essential transportation infrastructure that support a full transit plan and can be the connecting piece for other public/active transport. Allowing people to easily bike places takes more cars off the road, reducing traffic, and making it easier to get around. Safety for drivers and bicyclists is increased when bicyclists have protected bike lanes to travel in. If I’m driving, I prefer bicyclists to have their own lane. When I’m on a bike, I also prefer to have my own lane. Anytime I’m travelling I want bicyclists to have their own lane. We shouldn’t have more red tape and bureaucracy slowing down municipal governments doing what is best for their cities.

The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, which represents the entire engineering community in Ontario, just put out a response saying Bill 212 is a step in the wrong direction. Even with a heavy focus on the bike lane component of this bill, engineers across the province agree that it’s still a bad idea! We need an emphasis on multi-modal transportation and that includes bike lanes for bicyclists.