Toronto has added bike lanes throughout the past few years, but few have been as hotly debated as those on Yonge Street. The bike lanes were welcomed by cyclists in the city, as the road had always been considered dangerous due to traffic.
A pro-car lobbyist group has been against the bike lanes since its inception , and created a petition to have them removed in 2022. Robin Richardson is the founder of Happy Fiets, a company that rents out electric and cargo bikes, and a spokesperson of Yonge4All.
Yonge4All is an advocacy group that aims to make the bike lanes on Yonge Street permanent.
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Richardson has been vocal about the reasons why the bike lanes should not be removed, and offers many rebutalls to claims from the pro car group’s reasons.
“It is human nature to be uncomfortable with change, and I think that’s what we are seeing here,” Richardson says. “Toronto has spent decades prioritizing motor vehicle travel, and as a result most people think of driving as the default and believe ‘roads should be for cars.’ But as the city grows, with more people living close to downtown, many residents do not own cars—choosing instead to walk, cycle or take transit to get where they need to go. These modes of travel are gentler on the environment, healthier for the users […]
Continue reading the original article at: cyclingmagazine.ca