Toronto’s War on the Bike

Today Toronto city council voted in favor of spending $440,000.00 to remove existing bike lanes from Toronto city streets. Somehow spending that kind of coin to actually remove progressive infrastructure has become the “conservative” thing to do. While Toronto struggles to balance their budget with looming cuts proposed to everything from child care to other basic services, Council believes this expense to cut bike lanes is justified. This type of thinking falls under the category of wasteful “gravy train” spending. How do you tell a single mother living on a low fixed income that her child care subsidies are being dropped because Rob Ford wants to get rid of bike lanes? This whole mess coined “the war on the car” was created by sensationalist journalists who believed that “the war on the car” made for great headlines. Rather than challenge this divisive, backward thinking, the media repeated this message over and over again until the greater public actually believed there is a war on the car. The simple fact is that these bike lane detractors cannot wrap their brains around the concept that the more cyclists we have, the less cars there will be on the streets, making it easier for cars to travel. That’s just one of many collective benefits of encouraging bike riding as means of transportation. Its mind boggling that we are even debating this point. I would like to know how many councilors who voted in favor of this expense actually consulted with the local communities who will be affected by the removal of these bike lanes.  My guess is none; however Mayor Ford did say he is responding to people “calling into his office.” The reality today is that Toronto, like it or not, has intensified residential properties everywhere downtown. This means more and more people call downtown home and they have a right to have a say on the future of their local communities. What Mr. Ford and his minions at city hall don’t understand is that there are many residents who have no car and rely on public transit or their bike to get around. Rather than rewarding cyclists for making streets more open to cars, they are punishing them by making it more dangerous for bike travel. It seems our current Mayor and council prefers to look backwards instead of looking to the future. Toronto will continue to grow in population – this we know. A forward thinking mayor should realize that one day every street in this city will have bike lanes and streets like Bloor, King and Queen will have no parking. This is what every other large city around the world has already done. Why? Simple, to relieve car traffic congestion (perhaps a little too simple for Mayor Ford’s brain to handle).  To the journalists out there who believe in headlines over sustainability – thank-you for dividing our city. To the people out there who actually believe that bikes are best off the roads – get used to it. As the population continues to grow in Toronto, there will inevitably be more cyclists choosing a bike over a car.  And to the cyclists, keep riding and thank you for setting a positive example to everyone in our city.



 

Thanks to good old Don Cherry, the world has another word to refer to cyclists.