Thank you for all your…

Thank you for all your efforts in making Ontario a better place to live. I recognize that everyday you come to work, striving to make this province a better place to live and work.

My political views are not partisan. I voted Conservative, but I am more loyal to competence and efficiency than I am to any political party.

I do not consider myself "a cyclist". I don't really consider myself a driver either, although I both drive and cycle to get around. Like my politics, I've never found myself loyal to a particular transportation mode of getting around, and just use whatever is most efficient. I am also a business owner, which is perhaps why I'm someone who is more concerned about efficiency than I am about party politics.

I use the bike lanes to get to/from work and often times to get to other places downtown. Why? Simply because it's more convenient and efficient. I can grab a Bikeshare bike almost anywhere downtown, and ride safely to wherever I'm going, usually faster than any other mode of transportation. I also get some exercise while I'm doing it, and I'm also one less driver on the road when I choose to bike.

The idea that one more lane of traffic on Bloor, University, or Richmond is going solve traffic issues in Toronto is ludicrous. Traffic in the GTA has been chaotic and gridlocked for 50 years, despite the construction of numerous bike lanes in that time. One more lane dedicated to cars (or even worse, parked cars that are just stationary and wasting space and causing last minute merges) is not going to solve Toronto's traffic problems.

Undoubtedly, there are people who will send you comments that explain the merits of bike lanes much better than I will. But I'm guessing it doesn't really matter, because this issue is more about values than it is about facts (which is fine I suppose, that's almost always how it is). Arguments related to overreach into municipal politics probably doesn't matter either (even though small government and local government are supposed to be tenets of the Conservative Party platform, and tenets I believe in). And neither does the fact that removing bike lanes that are already built will make short-term traffic even worse and cost taxpayer money.

Given that I believe this debate is more value-based than it is fact-based, I'm not going to try and make the case that bike lanes should remain because they're more efficient. Instead, I would like to ask you to consider the following questions, if for no other reason than to help you strategically consider the outcomes of your decision:

- What happens when the cost of removing bike lanes (and building alternative new ones) balloons more than you expect? Other infrastructure projects around the province already suggest that cost and time overruns are guaranteed in almost all projects that the province engages in. (This is not a criticism; it simply is inevitable that these projects are very complex and have many considerations that are unforeseeable until after the project has begun)

- What happens when the next cyclist dies? I'm not trying to guilt you. It is simply a statistic reality that another cyclist will die on Toronto roads. 6 have already been killed this year in Toronto alone. It will likely be someone like me, someone who is just trying to get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, and was clipped by a driver who was trying to beat traffic. If these deaths happen on one of the existing arterial bike lanes that you plan on removing, it will be all the more tragic. Are you prepared to handle this both personally and professionally?

- What happens when traffic patterns don't meaningfully change, and when more groups (whom you currently use as examples of those disenfranchised by current bike lanes) such as BIAs actually come out against your decision? It's not a good look when you say businesses are being negatively impacted by bike lanes, and then the Bloor Street BIA comes out and says business has been better with bike lanes (see supporting link).

- Do you think that by removing bike lanes, people on a bike will stop biking on those roads? Some will, but many won't, because it's simply too inefficient and inconvenient to divert to some side road that doesn't exist. What will happen instead is these cyclists are more likely to take the entire lane (for safety reasons, as biking close to the curb makes cyclists vulnerable to passing cars), making it even more of a traffic issue than it is currently.

I am not speaking as someone who is loyal to your political opponents. You have probably seen that there have been a number of cyclist protests in recent weeks. You may write them off because they are a small number of people in the grand scheme of things. But please remember - I am not one of those demonstrators. I assure you there are many like me, who silently just use bikes to get from point A to B as efficiently as possible, and who otherwise may have voted for the Conservative Party in an upcoming election, but will no longer do so if this bill moves forward.

I appreciate your consideration. Thank you again for all your hard work.

Respectfully yours,

A concerned Torontonian