09-22-2024, 02:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-22-2024, 02:17 AM by danbrotherston.)
It's true we don't know what is proposed, but we can probably make some guesses. The plain reading of the law and the most straight forward implementation would be that bike lanes cannot be added in place of vehicle lanes, so, no road diets (Benton is out).
But we also know that DoFo is bitter about Toronto, so possibly it would do something to target Toronto more directly as well 🤷♂️. In that regard, we haven't heard anything about it, but bike lanes are a bigger cultural issue which might explain why we've only heard about bike lanes, so it's not impossible that transit lanes might be in it too (DoFo's brother famously hated streetcars).
I think the fundamental mistake would be to believe that this is a good faith policy (i.e., that Benton would be fine because it's overbuilt so it should be road dieted). A second fundamental mistake is to believe that bureaucrats like our active transportation planners (even our wonderful and progressive staff) will be willing to actively undermine provincial legislation in a fairly direct way... i.e., building a bike lane but marking is "bus lane". I simply don't think that will happen.
If this legislation passes, it will set bike infra in Ontario back 2-6-10 years (depending on how long Ontarians are willing to re-elect this garbage government). On that topic, here is a petition you can sign: https://www.cycleto.ca/ilovebikelanes and of course, all ya'll should also be writing to every elected official you can think of. Write early, write often.
But we also know that DoFo is bitter about Toronto, so possibly it would do something to target Toronto more directly as well 🤷♂️. In that regard, we haven't heard anything about it, but bike lanes are a bigger cultural issue which might explain why we've only heard about bike lanes, so it's not impossible that transit lanes might be in it too (DoFo's brother famously hated streetcars).
I think the fundamental mistake would be to believe that this is a good faith policy (i.e., that Benton would be fine because it's overbuilt so it should be road dieted). A second fundamental mistake is to believe that bureaucrats like our active transportation planners (even our wonderful and progressive staff) will be willing to actively undermine provincial legislation in a fairly direct way... i.e., building a bike lane but marking is "bus lane". I simply don't think that will happen.
If this legislation passes, it will set bike infra in Ontario back 2-6-10 years (depending on how long Ontarians are willing to re-elect this garbage government). On that topic, here is a petition you can sign: https://www.cycleto.ca/ilovebikelanes and of course, all ya'll should also be writing to every elected official you can think of. Write early, write often.