The Ontario government is moving forward with it’s plan to remove bike lanes from three of the busiest streets in Toronto.
Bloor Street West, Yonge Street and University Avenue are all slated to lose their bike lanes.
Jessica Bell, an MPP representing University-Rosedale, said removing bike lanes will increase the chances of cyclists getting injured or killed on our roads and have minimal effect on drive times.
“Drivers are not going to get from A to B more quickly if Doug Ford removes these bike lanes, all that’s going to happen is that a cyclist is more likely to get injured and end up in a hospital, or in a morgue,” she said.
“It is terrible public policy, it is not based on any kind of evidence," Bell said.
Bell said the government needs to reverse course and should instead expand the number of bike lanes that are in the city, rather than taking away the ones that are already there.
“The reason why we have congestion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) is because millions more people live in Ontario than they did 10 to 15 years ago and we’ve got the same number of roads,” she said.
“Congestion is primarily caused by traffic accidents, construction blocking a line of traffic and bad weather, it’s not caused by bike lanes,” Bell said.
She said it’s naive to think the three downtown bike lanes are the causes of congestion on the 401.
“The Conservatives are choosing to target cyclists because they want to create a false enemy for our congestion problems, instead of proactively dealing with the problem,” Bell said.
She said the Conservatives have the power to invest in public transit and better plan the city so people would be less dependent on a car.
“Instead, they are choosing to target cyclists.”
“We are also very disturbed by the fact that the Conservatives in their latest bill have insulated themselves from being sued by cyclists who are injured or killed as a result of these bike lanes being removed,” Bell said.
She said everyone should be able to travel to their destinations, both quickly and easily.
“We’re building more apartments and condos near transit so people can easily travel to where they work, play and study using public transit, cycling or walking…that is the only long-term solution to addressing our congestion woes,” Bell said.
“Congestion is not caused by bike lanes because when bike lanes are removed, cyclists are not going to stop biking, they’re going to be in the traffic instead of beside the traffic,” she said.
Bell said when or if the bike lanes are removed, more people will be seriously injured when cycling to their destination.
“This is also especially relevant to students because the University of Toronto is in our riding. The vast majority of students do not have cars,” she said.
“They cycle or walk or take public transit to get to school. There is no good reason why a student should have to risk their life or injury in order to get to their class on time.”
Bell said that might be the outcome if Doug Ford moves ahead with removing the bike lanes.
“The Conservatives have had seven years to fix our congestion crisis and over their term, it has only gotten worse,” she said.
“Conservatives are not moving ahead with these approaches and the NDP government will,” Bell said.
Sam Pappas, a Board Member of Balance on Bloor, said in a news release “Restoring vehicle lanes on major roads in Toronto is a major milestone that will help the community to thrive.”
Balance on Bloor is an organization made up of local residents and business owners.
“The lanes were underutilized and caused stress on drivers, seniors, those with accessibility issues and made it harder for emergency responders to get through our community,” said Christine Hogarth, an MPP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, in a news release.
“Removing these bike lanes makes sense for our community and it cannot be done soon enough,” she said.
