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EDITORIAL: Bill 212 causes congestion (Dec. 2024)

December 16th, 2024 · No Comments

Bill 212, Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024, is a reckless piece of legislation based on the false premise that bike lanes add to traffic congestion and are bad for business. The Annex is a shining example of how neither is true.

The government has now passed legislation empowering itself to remove bike lanes without any evidence they contribute to traffic congestion; in fact, they know there is evidence to the contrary.  They will be endangering lives, and they have added an amendment to the bill at the eleventh hour to prevent anyone from suing the government if they become injured because of the wilful negligence of ripping out bike lanes. You can’t make this stuff up.

Ministry of Transportation (MOT) staff are still in data gathering mode trying to find a set of facts that fit the “problem” to which the premier already “knows in his gut” is the solution. 

If anything, the available data tells a different story. 

The Canadian Automobile Association commissioned CPCS, a Canadian-based international transportation consulting firm, to examine best practices to ease congestion. In their report, they made several recommendations including improving traffic management systems, improving traffic incident management, and investing in relatively low-cost solutions like bike-sharing, bicycle infrastructure, carpooling and ride-sharing. 

The Toronto Region Board of Trade’s congestion task force echoes this sentiment in their Congestion-2023 Mayoral By-Election Issues Guide which states that “Mayoral candidates must be ready to pursue solutions that can help ease the pressure points across our transportation network including: improving traffic management systems, bringing our roads to good repair, seeking to upload costly regional expressways, better utilization of bike lanes, and more thoughtful construction planning that ensures viable traffic detours.”

On Bloor Street, the Bloor Annex BIA is dedicated to providing its business membership with data-driven and evidence-based decisions. That’s why, in 2015, when the City of Toronto proposed installing a bike lane as a pilot project along Bloor Street, from University Avenue to Shaw Street, the BIA, in partnership with the city, the Korea Town BIA, and the Metcalf Foundation, commissioned the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) to investigate the economic and safety impacts—positive, negative or neutral—of the bike lanes. 

This academic-level study included baseline data that was obtained pre-pilot, as well as data from when the pilot concluded in 2016, in both the Bloor Annex and Korea Town BIAs. Data was also collected along a comparable section of Danforth Avenue which was used as a control. To ensure impartial data collection and analysis, TCAT partnered with researchers from the U of T.

The TCAT study found that in the Bloor Annex, looking just at the economic data, sales went up after the installation of the pilot bike lanes across all parameters. This was verified by Paymentech, the payment terminal, which provided locally sourced data.

And from a safety perspective:

• conflicts between all road users decreased by 44 per cent 

• conflicts between motorized vehicles decreased by 71 per cent 

• bike/motorized vehicle conflicts decreased by 61 per cent 

• pedestrian/motorized vehicles conflicts decreased by 55 per cent 

After receiving this positive data, the Bloor Annex BIA supported the permanent installation of bike lanes. 

Eight years later, what we’re seeing on our main street is an inclusive retail area that supports 270 small businesses. It’s a main street that is welcoming to all—whether they arrive by bike, on foot, by public transportation, or by car. Women are 50 per cent more likely to bike on Bloor as well as the elderly, children, or whole families; all feel safer and are coming to Bloor more frequently.

Toronto works because it is a collection of neighbourhoods which are sustained by amenities found on main streets. Without main streets, we cannot sustain neighbourhoods. In the Annex, bike lanes have become part of our main street, and they help make our businesses economically viable. We are not a freeway. We do not aspire to be one; we are a village.

Based on all the evidence, removing bike lanes on our stretch of Bloor and disconnecting Toronto’s cycling network would only undo the complete streets work we’ve fostered over the last 10 years, make the roads more dangerous for all users, and increase congestion. 

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Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion