The Case Against Bus Lanes

What’s up with the environmentally dangerous, depressing red paint?

Canadians see enough red on the stock market, we didn’t ask to start seeing it on our roads too. 

New bike routes, road closures prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists, and streetside patios.

If the government wages a war on cars, Torontonians will suffer. 

One simply cannot transport groceries, hockey bags, many boxes of files, or furniture for a new home on TTC buses. Automobile travel is necessary for human flourishing! 

The Eglinton lanes alone are expected to cost almost $8 million! 

These red lanes are being installed as permanent infrastructure. 

The TTC claims that by giving buses their own lanes, painting roads red will reduce travel times on local and express routes by 16.5 and 6.5 per cent respectively. For example, riders on the 905 Eglinton East Express would save 4 to 5 minutes on a trip from Kennedy station to UTSC.

Did the city even look into how these lanes impact drivers?

Fundamentally, I doubt painting roads red does much to improve traffic congestion, reduce carbon emissions, or increase TTC ridership. The city should find other ways of improving traffic congestion, like building tunnels or subways, or perhaps even finishing Eglinton LRT. 

I bet you it does take a lot of money out of your pocket paying fines, paying for extra gasoline, and increasing your taxes to pay for the bloody project. 

Express bus routes were cut earlier in the pandemic as ridership plummeted.

The TTC plans to remove 24 of the 69 stops along the Eglinton corridor. 

The city removed bus stops on the express routes, like the 905 stop at Kingston and Eglinton, that I used every day. While not that bad, I now have to use the bus stop at Kingston and Markham, which adds about 3 minutes each way to my commute.

The combined public transit cuts and war on cars effectively strands Canadians who want to get out of the house. 

The bus lanes are just the latest in a wave of new measures that the city of Toronto is taking to ruin the lives of Canadians. We also have new speed camera fines, increased police traffic patrol presence, lowered speed limits, and other surveillance state policies.

Solution

The city, cue the sound of an epic guitar riff, should see those red bus lanes and want to Paint it Black. Tear down those municipal speed cameras and raise speed limits. 

Government officials must serve the people who elected them.

Smart transportation policies are necessary for a healthy, functioning city. New Associate Transportation Minister Vijay Thanigasalam, MPP for Scarborough-Rouge Park, and Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, MPP for Brampton South, have a big job on their hands to fix the mistakes bully bureaucracy and big government have created.

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