The underlying philosophy…

The underlying philosophy for this Bill 212 is fundamentally flawed! Your government is concerned about a specific class of citizens - "Drivers" - at the expense of ALL citizens - "people". You claim to be a government "for the people" but your own bill aims to elevate drivers, and disadvantage many others who use active transportation and public transit. You would be better to get traffic flowing for PEOPLE, instead of your absurd fixation on just DRIVERS. A significant problem in our complex society is that too many people are single drivers commuting long distances in vehicles that take up large areas of our public spaces. Active transportation (bikes, scooters, etc) take up less space, but do so at the cost of less physical protection on the vehicle. Instead, that protection is often built into safe road design. Furthermore, human density on public transit (buses, subways, etc) use our limited public space to carry MORE people. On a related note, we also need SUSTAINABLE housing policies that allow people to live closer to where they work if they choose! Encouraging MORE sprawl, and MORE long commuting with this abhorrent highway is not the answer.

If your argument that bike lanes cause congestion was correct, we would see less congestion elsewhere. Yet in Scarborough, where I live, there are very few bikes lanes, and just unbelievable traffic. While we do drive, my wife, my son, and my self use transit, and cycling on a fairly regular basis. ALL THREE OF US, have had "near-miss collisions" while cycling in mixed traffic on Scarborough roads in the LAST THREE MONTHS! And the premier IGNORES the fact, that Toronto geography forces cyclists onto primary roads, since secondary roads are commonly blocked by either railway tracks or ravines! For example, I biked from Victoria Park to Morningside, on the north side of the 401. While I was able to travel much of the route on side streets as the Premier suggested, I was forced by two railway tracks, to endanger myself biking up Kennedy, and along Shepherd until I was nearly to Morningside. Unless the premier is willing to build a LOT of pedestrian bridges connecting secondary roads over existing ravines and railways, cyclists have no choice but to enter regular roads, potholes and all. Similarly, if I want to travel south, I must go on the main streets of Pharmacy, Victoria Park, Warden, or Birchmount to cross the 401 and the railway tracks. Premier, there IS NO OTHER ROUTE ON SECONDARY ROADS!

By the way, there are NO bike lanes on the 401 but it is packed every day, while the 407, a PARALLEL route, sits largely empty. Shame on you for ignoring the obvious. We simply have TOO MANY CARS.

You have had 8 years to work to solve these problems. THIS BILL DOES NOTHING to solve them.

We are desperate to move MORE people, MORE efficiently. your bill will NOT do that. In fact, a government that claims to be "the most transparent and accountable" actually plans to HIDE from The People by exempting 413 from the Environmental Assessment Act entirely, instead doing lip service to our vulnerable environment through limited studies focused on “local environmental conditions” and whose findings on “sensitive natural or cultural heritage matters would be kept secret”. It is absolutely shameful.

I am hopeful that my comments will make an impact on this assessment, but given the high level of corruption and ignorance of data that we see from this government it is likely that the Premiers developer friends have much more significant impact. Time to change your slogan to "Doug Ford: For the Developers".