Dear Premier Ford,
We, the city builders of the National Capital Region are writing to express our strong opposition to provincial legislation that would make it more difficult to build safe cycling infrastructure. As developers, architects, urban planners, urban designers, landscape architects, and transportation planners, we believe this decision would be detrimental to the safety, health, and overall well-being of Ontarians. Specifically, we urge you to reconsider the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act.
It’s clear you are passionate about working to save people’s time when they travel around their cities, it’s right there in the title of the act. We are too! However, it is important to understand that prioritizing cars over bikes will not get people moving faster. It will however increase congestion, increase emissions, increase altercations on our roads and ultimately lead to more fatalities. We are not advocating for a war on cars, we simply want to provide the residents of Ontario with options to move around their city safely.
Let’s talk about why restricting bike lanes would not be good for Ontario.
We need alternative modes of transportation for the density and pace we are building at. We are in a housing crisis that needs homes built quick and at higher densities than what our cities currently have. Your provincial government, as well as the federal and municipal governments, have identified intensification as a key strategy to achieving our housing targets. Our cities are already choked with vehicle traffic and adding more cars to the road will not solve the issue. There is no space in our cities to endlessly widen our roads, instead we need to rethink how the space on our roads is currently distributed. Transit, walking, and yes, cycling need to be realistic, safe, and direct options for getting around our cities.
Building bike lanes reduce congestion. A two-way protected bike lane can move 7,500 people per hour whereas a single lane of vehicle traffic can only move 600-1,600 per hour, all while the bike lane takes up less space. This is simple physics, a bike lane moves more people than a car lane does. To get that many people using our bike lanes, we need to continue to build a connected and safe network of cycling infrastructure. You said it best on Political Blind Date, “You’re nervous when there’s not bike lanes”.
The idea that bike lanes slow emergency services is also a misconception. The City of Toronto has studied how emergency service response time has changed after bike lanes were installed on Bloor and there has not been a significant difference in response times compared to the city average. In fact, when designed and built correctly, bike lanes can speed up emergency response times as emergency vehicles can use bike lanes.
Bike lanes increase economic production. Bike lanes allow more people to access stores, encourage people to stay longer, and make it easier for people to move from one store to another. In the City of Toronto, installing bike lanes on Bloor Street has been correlated with increasing economic activity. A study out of the University of Arizona showed that a $600 million investment in complete streets that included cycling infrastructure was associated with $6 billion in redevelopment investments. For businesses to benefit the most, bike lanes need to be built on main streets, where our business are and where people want to go.
As cities across Ontario densify, protected cycling infrastructure is a key part of the future. It reduces our dependency on cars, alleviates traffic, lowers our cost of living, and helps to build greener, more livable cities for everyone. Ontario has the opportunity to be a leader in sustainable transportation by supporting, not restricting, cycling infrastructure.
We, the developers, architects, urban planners, urban designers, landscape architects, and transportation planners of the National Capital Region, urge you to reconsider the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, listen to the experts in the field, and position Ontario as a leader in the development of protected cycling infrastructure.
Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
Signed,
Brigil
Windmill Developments
Theia Partners
Dream
TCU Development Corporation Linebox Studio
Hobin Architecture
CSV Architects
Siteform Inc
Perkins&Will
Arcadis
Re:Public Urbanism
DS Studio
Architects DCA
Kadus Group
S.J.Lawrence Architect Inc
