Ontario Court VS Doug Ford

As a candidate for Toronto City Council, Ward 25 Scarborough-Rouge Park, I want to give my thoughts on today's decision.

I am glad this has happened, for mainly 3 reasons. No matter how you feel about bike lanes, especially downtown, I don't think it is Doug Ford's place to over-ride city decisions on internal infrastructure.

Reason number 1:

These lanes are hard infrastructure. They are not painted lines. They are concrete curbs with separation from traffic. Right now Port Union is undergoing construction and similar lanes are being installed. Sheppard between Bayview and Willowdale has had them installed. Queens Quay redesign is fantastic. There is a lot of cost that goes into the commissioning of these lanes. Many studies are done, it is debated for years and there is large costs before the infrastructure is installed. To remove them after installation basically throws all that money away. We are paying for the reports, we pay for the consultation, we pay for the installation...only to have another level of government come in and say "we will rip it out" after it is installed? It is a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.

Reason number 2:

Doug Ford is not Premier of Toronto. He needs to stop micro-managing the city. Toronto has it's own elected representative's who do work on behalf of the people of Toronto. He is also interfering in different municipalities across Ontario against the wishes of the local communities. I'm glad an Ontario Court has checked his power. 

Reason number 3:

I prefer bike lanes to have a hard barrier between the traffic and the bike lane. Painted lines are...well temporary and provide no safety for the cyclist. Bike lanes with concrete curb separation have shown to reduce deaths and injuries to cyclists who share the space with other users. 

I have a video response to watch below.