Thank you for bringing the…

Thank you for bringing the impacts of bike lanes along congested major urban roadways into public discussion.

The current Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process at present allows a segment-by-segment rather than a full network approach to transportation planning. The process classifies transportation projects based on their (natural) environmental impact, so projects that involve not adding any additional road width, e.g. repurposing existing vehicular road lanes for cycling lanes, are classified as EA-Exempt projects. This EA exemption allows conversions from vehicular lanes to bike lanes to take place quite easily. For a consistent transportation and policy planning framework in the province, the MCEA process should be revisited to ensure that the broader transportation impacts on all modes of transportation are also considered.

I can appreciate the benefits of having cycling lanes to facilitate cycling and make cycling safer. I can also appreciate that not all types of trips can be made by bicycle, so the movement of motorized traffic also needs to be considered - and this includes transit, trucks, emergency vehicles, services like waste collection, and yes, personal automobiles too. Toronto is one of the most congested cities in North America, and that hardly makes it "open for business".

Most efficiently, motorized traffic would move on major roadways, with secondary roadways being used for local access and local traffic. Having cycling lanes reduce the capacity of major roadways means that through traffic ends up using secondary roadways. For example, with the bike lanes installed on Bloor Street east of downtown, Google Maps often now directs drivers to avoid Bloor Street for through traffic and use secondary or local roads instead. While the most appropriate place for bike lanes may sometimes be on major roads, more consideration needs to be first seeing whether bike lanes could go along parallel secondary roads instead.

A network of truck routes also needs to be to be protected to ensure freight can be delivered, etc. Some vehicle types like larger trucks, construction vehicles, fire trucks, etc. need the larger, wider roads with enough turning space, and it is more feasible to move the smaller bicycles than to move bus or truck routes. MTO has identified a Strategic Goods Movement network in its GGH plan, but I understand that even these roads are being considered to be switched in part to bike lanes, e.g. Kingston Road.

Having bike lanes on major roads makes the roads more confusing, with so many more things to watch out for, so much guided by painted lines that are hard to see in the rain at night. And the many bike lanes separated by bollards! Perhaps the bollards are a temporary step to provide bike lane separation until curbs or other treatments can be installed, but the bollards make so many of Toronto's streetscapes look so unattractive, especially the rows of damaged ones. I hope that other solutions can be developed to provide some separation for bike lanes when needed.

Cycling affects not only vehicular traffic but also transit riders, as often transit riders have to cross cycling lanes when getting on or off the vehicles. Cyclists often don't stop at lights and both cars and pedestrians as well as cars have to be extra careful to see whether what cyclists are doing at intersections.

Cycling lanes in Toronto are often used by e-bikes and e-scooters, e.g. by Uber Eats or other cycling couriers making deliveries. This doesn't seem appropriate to me. Guidance by the Province on what types of vehicles should use bike lanes would be helpful in the Highway Traffic Act, so that it doesn't fall on municipalities to each define this for themselves.

Other means to reduce gridlock include coordinating construction, i.e. making sure that all major parallel routes are not impacted by construction or other activities, and Toronto often has major parallel routes affected at the same time.