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FORUM: Bike lanes are a solution to congestion, not the cause (Oct./Nov. 2024)

November 8th, 2024 · No Comments

Ford adds fuel an to an ugly culture war of drivers versus cyclists

By Jessica Bell

Queen’s Park should be solving our biggest challenges, like climate change, homelessness, and fixing our public services, from health care to schools.

Doug Ford, however, is preparing for the next election, and making cynical and divisive political moves that won’t improve our lives, but will motivate his base.

That’s why the premier is attacking bike lanes.

The Conservatives are proposing new legislation that will require cities to get provincial approval to build a bike lane if it takes out a lane for vehicles. The government is also going to review every bike lane built in the past five years, including the Bloor Street and University Avenue bike lanes.

This is a terrible move. Removing bike lanes will make our roads more unsafe for cyclists, commute times won’t improve, and it will fuel an ugly culture war of drivers versus cyclists, suburbs versus downtown.

As I travel around our riding, I often reflect upon the people who have died cycling on our streets. I show my children the ghost bikes, marking those who have died, and urge them to bike as carefully as they can.

A 24-year old woman cycling on Bloor Street was killed earlier this summer when she veered out of a bike lane blocked by a dumpster for a construction project and was hit by a truck.

Local resident, beloved teacher and athlete, John Offut, was killed by a truck while cycling.

Alex Amaro, a 23-year-old journalism student was killed on Dufferin Street as she was taking a left hand turn in 2020. “All she was trying to do was come home,” said her friend at a council meeting.

These are preventable tragedies.

It is certainly true that getting around our rapidly growing region has never been more stressful and time consuming. Toronto is ranked the worst city in North America for traffic and commute times, beating out Mexico City, Los Angeles, and New York City. Commercial vehicles have difficulty delivering goods and services. Transit is often slow and unreliable.

It’s also true that the Conservatives have not taken our region’s serious transportation challenges seriously. The only positive move the Conservatives have made is to commit to building four new transit lines, including the Ontario Line and the Yonge Line Extension. This is an investment we support.

On the flip side, the Conservatives have flatly refused to help fund the maintenance and operation of the streetcar, bus, and subway lines to make the TTC faster, cheaper, and more reliable for 1.7 million angry, tired, and frustrated riders.

They’re doubling down on building highways, including this preposterous plan to build a tunnel under Highway 401 from Scarborough to Brampton.

They’re upending our planning laws to permit the construction of expensive low-density housing, which locks people into car use. This kind of outdated 1950s-style planning is terrible for congestion, terrible for the environment, and very expensive for municipalities to service.

If we’re serious about creating fast, reliable, and sustainable transportation patterns, then we need to pass rules that make it easier for people to walk, cycle, or take public transit more often.

To achieve this, the province needs to invest in transit so fares can be lowered and service levels can be rapidly increased, especially along bus routes. 

Our planning rules need to encourage more density—not less—which means making it quicker and easier to build townhomes, fourplexes, apartments, and condos, in existing neighbourhoods so more people can afford to live near where they work, play, and study.

The province should adopt a Vision Zero strategy to reduce injuries and deaths on our roads to zero. This plan should include properly enforcing our road laws and protected bike lanes. Two major cities —Oslo, in Norway, and Helsinki, in Finland—had zero deaths of vulnerable road users by 2020 through implementing a Vision Zero approach. If they can do it, so can we.

Jessica Bell is the MPP for University-Rosedale and the Official Opposition’s Housing Critic. She can be reached at jbell@ndp.on.ca or 416-535-7206. 

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Tags: General