Are Enough of Us Going To Stand Up To Doug Ford and his Lackeys On This Awful Idea and Say NO?
A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted September 22nd, 2024 on Niagara At Large
I can’t believe I have to write this one but I feel that I do.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford continues pushing to take us further and further backwards on building better communities for the 21st Century.
And let me start with my imagining what Doug Ford, our Premier in Ontario, might say, if pressed on his government’s views on bike lanes and traffic congestion.
“Friends,” I could hear him bellowing in that Homer Simpson-like vernacular of his, “if we could only get these cyclists off our roads and make more room for trucks and cars, we would have less traffic congestion.”
First of all Mr. Premier, I may be unfortunate enough to live in Ontario during your reign of error but I, for at least one, am not one of your friends, okay.
Second, a draft report from your government that CBC reporters recently managed to obtain reveals that the Ford government is looking at the possibility of banning any more bike lanes on municipal roads across the province if, in the government’s view, it is determined that they would interfere with truck and car traffic and are therefore cause more traffic congestion.
This makes about as much sense as some of that demented stuff we hear across the border after a mass shooting – i.e.: ‘If only more people had guns, there would be less crime.’
The idea of banning bike lanes as an answer to congestion on our roads is as wrong-headed as the mid-Twentieth Century belief that goes back to the advent of the car culture and that you continue to cling to, Mr. Premier, that the way to solve the congestion problem on our highways is to build more highways.
It has been shown over and over again, all over the continent, that just the opposite is true.
The late American sociologist and historian Lewis Mumford, who had a keen interest in how we plan our towns and cities and roads, once observed that no sooner is a new highway built or more lanes are added to an existing highway, it is just as congested as it was when the expansion started.
“Adding more car lanes to deal with traffic congestion,” Mumford once said, “is like loosening your belt to cure obesity.”
I doubt that Ford, stuck in the car culture of the 1950s and 60s, as he so obviously is, has ever given any thought to that one, let alone to the possibility that the best way of addressing congestion on our roads is to invest in and make our communities more friendly, not only for cyclists, but for pedestrians and public transit.
That, along with giving up his government’s God-awful obsession with approving more low-density urban sprawl, would not only go a long way toward addressing the congestion problem on our existing roads and highways, but would help in the movement to protect and preserve what is left of our green lands, and address climate change.
As for providing room for cyclists on the road, there are many countries in Europe and around the world that have been doing that for decades so why, except for backward thinking politicians like Ford, can’t we do it here?
It would be great if our municipal representatives would stand up to Ford and say no to any ban on bike lanes but it appears that too many of them are reluctant to criticize the Premier at all for fear of missing out on some of that funding he is sprinkling around for wastewater facilities and other infrastructure.
So it may very well be we, the people, who will have to stop this premier and his lackeys from dragging us further backwards, even if it means using the power of our vote to sweep them out of power.
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
For related news on this issue, click on the following links – Ontario eyes barring new bike lanes where car lanes would be cut | CBC News
Ontario government eyes restricting bike lanes on city streets (youtube.com)
Ford government to table legislation to restrict bike lanes on city streets | Globalnews.ca
Ontario eyes barring new bike lanes where car lanes would be cut | Canada Tonight (youtube.com)
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
Niagara At Large 
If Premier Ford were to ban all bikes (manual/electric 2,2,3, or 4 wheels)on public roads there would be no need for bike lanes. Premier Ford should be using full vision, not partial vision.
Without bike lanes, bikers would either use sidewalks and run over people or ride on the road competing with vehicles.
A response from Doug Draper at NAL – This makes about as much sense as what the Ford government is planning to do now.
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