Bill 212 Bike Rally and Request for Action

To my friends and family, and others who enjoy reading my blog to follow my travels by bike, I want to let you know how much I appreciate you taking the time to follow me, when there are so many things online demanding your attention. I began writing this blog to be more mindful of important events in my life, and to have my memories written down to refer to if they fade as I age. As I started travelling by bike, and people expressed an interest in reading about my travels, it provided me with extra encouragement to continue documenting them, particularly at the end of a long day riding.

If you follow my adventures regularly, you know that I am a fearless rider who will ride anywhere, whether or not there is cycling infrastructure, however, I feel much more comfortable where high-quality cycling infrastructure exists. I’ve been advocating for that for 10 years now, as a member of BikeBrampton, and a member and co-chair of Brampton’s Active Transportation Advisory Committee, a committee of council which advises city councillors on active transportation matters.

Doug Ford and his Conservative government in Ontario have decided to use bike lanes as a culture war wedge issue. Bill 212 proposes to force municipalities to get provincial approval to build bike lanes, and to remove three key protected bike lanes in Toronto on Bloor, University and Avenue Roads. He claims, against the evidence, that bike lanes are causing congestion in Toronto.

The evidence just does not support this position. You cannot build your way out of congestion. Over and over again cities that have been able to tame congestion do so by investing in public transit, and active transportation infrastructure, to encourage people to use alternatives to the private motor vehicle.

Prior to the rally, I did an 8 km ride around downtown. Where I encountered congestion it was due to construction, and drivers blocking intersections.

Jeven’s paradox is an economic theory that states that increased efficiency and resources can lead to increased resource consumption. When it comes to roads this concept is known as induced demand. Basically, the better you make something like a road, the more people will use it. The impact of creating more space for motor vehicle vehicles will reduce congestion for only a short period of time.

In the Australian sitcom Utopia, about a government planning department, they did a funny, and truthful, episode on road widening. It’s worth five minutes of your time to view it.

16 people from Brampton attended the rally of over 700 cyclists.

I shot some video during the ride after the speeches at Queen’s Park. Take note in this first video how hundreds of cyclists are able to travel efficiently in the same space that only a handful of drivers are able to move in stop-and-go motor vehicle traffic. Even if this bike lane was removed all it would do would be to provide another motor vehicle traffic lane of stop-and-go traffic.

This video shows the group arriving back at Queens Park. Imagine if each of these cyclists had been in a car!

It can be very difficult to spread a message outside of one’s social media echo chamber, which is why I’m asking those who read this blog, who might not otherwise feel inclined to sign a petition or provide feedback on Bill 212, to do so.

Why should you care if you don’t ride a bike?

• Perhaps you would like to, but it feels too unsafe
• Perhaps you have friends and loved ones who do ride bikes and you worry about them, and want them to be safer
• Perhaps you are concerned about the climate emergency and understand that the transportation sector is very carbon intensive
• Perhaps you are someone who will never ride a bike, but would like safer streets for all road users, including those in motor vehicles. Surveys regularly show that the world‘s happiest drivers live in Netherlands, where there is also the most active transportation infrastructure.

What can you do? You can share this blog post, and the video and blog post linked below, on your social media, which might help get it outside of the cycling social media echo chamber. You can also click one of the buttons below. If you live in Brampton write to your councillor and tell them that you support bike lanes in Brampton. This bill will affect everywhere in the province, not just Toronto.

This bill will create red tape and increased bureaucracy, preventing the implementation of essential transportation infrastructure, which will put vulnerable road users at risk, and make driving more difficult and congested. Doug Ford is lying.

Thank you in advance for your help in letting Doug Ford’s government know that this bill will not solve congestion, will make the roads more dangerous, and will not not only prevent those who would like to try riding a bike for transportation from doing so, but also cause many of those who are currently riding to start driving more again, thus contributing to increased congestion.

Dayle, who my regular readers will know from many of my cycling adventures, has created this excellent resource for fighting Bill212 with links to organizations such as the Bloor Annex BIA, Mount Sinai hospital, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and more, sharing their support for bike lanes.