The Ontario government is considering bringing forward legislation that could prohibit the installation of bike lanes when lanes for motor vehicles are removed as a result, sources say.
Siemiatycki said “this government has signalled that the car is king,” pointing to prior steps the governing Progressive Conservatives (PCs) have taken to ease costs for drivers.
He sees the PCs as making a clear play for the votes of motorists, and believes the policy would also appeal to many drivers frustrated with congestion on the roads.
This is such a municipal issue it’s annoying to see the Province wanting to butt in in the first place.
Municipal government is an extension of provincial government. City councils have no real power, in effect they merely advise. Their authority comes from the provincial government, who can overrule any decision they make, and even substitute their own.
This is not well understood. I don’t know if it is different by province but it’s definitely the case in Ontario. The Ontario provincial government can do anything with cities, including dissolve and create them.
This is what bugs me about the Ford government
They want none of the responsibilities or finances of a provincial government, and they constantly want to step in to municipal issues and politics.
Remember how he fucked with TOs city hall?
When they show you who they are, believe them.
What do you expect from a conservative government? This cuts into oil consumption and green alternatives. Can’t have that!
Is that a typo? You mean barring car lanes where bike lanes need to go, right?
This is just another example of Ford’s retail politics.
From the guy who brought you “buck a beer” and handing out twenties when he was running for CPC leader.
Well that’s shit.
I think we need to keep educating the people we know that the only way to decrease traffic in the city is to move as many people as possible out of their cars into public transit or on bikes. That’s an easy point to make.
I keep trying, and around the younger people my age it’s mostly agreement, but when it comes to people even just slightly older they just “like driving” and hate cyclists and think public transit sucks. They don’t understand that the reason for their dislike is due to the poor biking and transit infrastructure and car-centric roads and cities.
Totally fine. When I get that, I go with “Well a lot of people don’t like driving; transit and bikes take those cars away from the road so your driving will be nicer. The more people in cars the worse the driving for you. We can’t build wide enough to accommodate it while being able to afford living here. Transit and bikes are much cheaper and get cars out of your way. Vroom vroom”
Preface: I work with a hard core “they’re going to make us eat crickets” kinda guy.
He was going on about how “how bad traffic is in the GTA and how they are trying to take away our cars so that no one drives any more.” So I point out that if they added a bunch more Go Trains in the GTA you wouldn’t need your car to commute AND there would be less traffic on the highway for the people who do drive.
But where are you going to park all those extra trains.
Bruh. There are how many million fucking cars that drive to the GTA and park every god damned day but you want to know where they are going to park 30 trains?
Tell him they fold flat for storage.
But where are you going to park all those extra trains.
Bad faith argument and false equivalency.
They don’t think a second about the spatial constraints of cars, so using this argument is a failed attempt at using the enemy’s weapons against themselves.
They don’t, they keep rolling all day, unlike cars that sit still most of their life.
Car brain disease…
Show them a picture of the Mimico railyard. Then blow their mind with “with 24-hour service, fewer trains need parking.”
Lol, yeah, rail depots are just such a mystery to figure out. I guess the fact that you can put these anywhere out of the way means the guy has never seen one. As opposed to parking garages that have to be at the destination.
Also obligatory !fuckcars@lemmy.world.
I know google’s amp links are BS designed to keep in you a google ecosystem and never take you to the actual content creators’ sites. Do you mind outlining for my and others’ edification what’s not to like about CBC’s links with “amp” in them? I’d love to know. Thanks!
Honestly, there aren’t many places that do bike lanes well anyway, and so long as the idea of bike lanes in Ontario is a painted line at the edge of the asphalt, I wouldn’t bother.
I mean, removing the cars from the road where you install a bike lane is how to do it tho
Well yes, as in step one in a many step process. Most places don’t even consider step one.
So many bike lanes are not well considered. They have poor maintenance because they’re the shoulder, they can be filled with debris that punctures tires or reduces traction, there are manhole covers are grates, parked cars, or they lead into sidewalks that you can’t legally bike on, etc.
As a rider you have to do what’s safest, and when there isn’t quality infrastructure that means avoiding certain roads and taking the full lane on others.
This law would simply make it impossible to create that infrastructure, which really sucks
You’re supposed to take the lane if the “bike shoulder” isn’t safe to ride in
Yes, but then you have to be prepared to be verbally abused, honked at, hated, or even just plain hit by a car because drivers don’t understand this.
That’s the bare minimum requirements needed to live in Toronto as a human, lol
