I Can’t Believe I Have to Make This Video

The premier of Canada’s most populous province has doubled down on his anti-cycling rhetoric, promising to remove existing bike lanes on primary roads. He singled out three important routes that had been major wins for cycling in Toronto: Bloor Street, Yonge Street, and University Avenue.

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[OhTheUrbanity]

If you live in Ontario, consider submitting a statement explaining why people need transportation options as opposed to more red tape and bureaucracy.

[Interrobang]

As someone who has lived in Toronto for 20 years, what I can tell you is that before the bike lanes car traffic was bumper to bumper, after bike lanes car traffic was bumper to bumper, if they remove the bike lanes I predict that the car traffic will be... you guessed it, bumper to bumper.

[TheNiteinjail]

There is also a simple perception issue. 100 people riding past on bikes in an hour makes a bike lane look fairly empty .. but a hundred people in 70-80 cars going by is a lot of traffic and noise.

[Dreadlock]

As someone who drives everyday and has no interest in commuting by bike I don’t understand how people think removing bike infrastructure is going to improve their driving experience. Like the number one complaint people have against cyclists is that they ride in the road at low speeds and get in the way. Well obviously if there’s a bike lane that’s not going to be an issue, it’s only when there’s no dedicated bike infrastructure and they’re forced to occupy the same space as vehicles. It’s not like cyclists are getting in your way intentionally just to be dicks, if there’s nowhere else to ride there’s nowhere else to ride, so by removing bike lanes you’re just gonna be exasperating this problem. I really don’t get how people don’t understand this

[MaouProductions]

I just don't want my tax dollars being used to rip up infrastructure that not only people use, but we spent a ton of money installing. It's so wasteful

[nolifenerdwhohasnevergotten]

If you've ever had the misfortune of reading Fordnation, the book written by Doug and Rob Ford, there's a section where Doug Ford talks about why he hates bike lanes and it gives an amazing insight into not only how Ford views bike lanes but also how he views pretty much everything. His reasoning? He doesn't like seeing bikes pass him while he's trying to get to work. He hates being stuck on Bloor or University sitting in traffic while bikes are zipping by. That's why he's ripping out those specific bike lanes, that's why he's demanding bikes be moved to side-streets! He just doesn't want to see them on his personal commute to work or when going to collect a bribe from some rich friend in Summerhill or Yorkville. It's such a selfish and simple-minded mentality and it's depressing that it's the mentality that is used to determine policy in Ontario.

[Krueger]

"Take side streets". Designers of side streets: "We need to make sure these side streets don't actually go anywhere so that cars won't use them"

[Chop]

In 2011, Jarvis Bike lanes were ripped out by Rob Ford because it took cars 2 minutes longer to travel southbound during morning rush hour, and 4 minutes longer northbound during afternoon rush. After removing the lanes, and installing a reversible centre SUPER-LANE that can change directions based on time, an analysis on the roadway found that it's EVEN SLOWER to travel down Jarvis than it did in 2011.

Source: Google - 2018 City of Toronto Major Arterials Compressed

[Poptartsicles]

Ford may as well be saying "People in wheelchairs never enter this building, therefore we don't need to make it wheelchair accessible." Jee I wonder why...

[KrzysztofBob]

Doug looks like someone who would hugely benefit from cycling.

[aquaticko]

Kills me that the whole thing isn’t viewed as a matter of freedom of choice. What if you just don’t WANT to drive everywhere?

[gabetalks]

Conservatives being anti-big government when something benefits everyone, but then being extremely pro-big government when it benefits themselves at everyone else's expense will never cease to amaze me. It takes an exceptional lack of self-awareness to not see through that grift.

[michaelcarrasco]

I can't imagine how it must feel for Ontarians in regions like Thunder bay watch the Premier obsess over 3 roads in a single city over a thousand kilometers away

[TrafficExplorerON]

"You can't justify a bridge by the number of people swimming across a river"
-Brent Toderian

And also note that the proposed legislation mentions nothing about side streets or streets with low traffic volumes.

[oldgreg]

I emailed my local MPP for Etobicoke - Lakeshore; Christine Hogarth. She was extremely rude and straight up lied about tearing up the bloor at bike lanes.

If there is an upcoming election we need to vote her out.

[tehsiewdai]

So sorry to hear about this happening in Toronto.
Bike advocacy is tough. Thank you for your effort!

Supporting your work from Singapore!

[dogsandbicycles]

How are 2% of people using vehicles far smaller than the average car able to clog a complete city? Cyclists must be really powerful if they can get traffic to stand still in such small numbers.

[Alex_Plante]

I used to have a friend who was a bicycle messenger. He was killed on the job, hit by a truck, at the age of 22.

One of the most confusing trends I have seen over the last few years is how much US state and Canadian Provincial governments are trying to prevent big cities from solving problems autonomously.

[jimspies]

"I want people to die so that I can go vroom-vroom" That's literally all I hear when I hear people talk against bike infrastructure.