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Cars don’t get stuck in traffic. They are the traffic.
Induced demand is real. Adding more lanes to roads does not improve traffic. It ultimately just funnels more vehicles through the area than before.
The only known ways to improve traffic is giving people other options than being forced to drive. Not everyone wants to drive. Many do it out of need due to travel distance, poor mass transit and lack of biking infrastructure increasing risk of injury or death.
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Nobody is trying to punish drivers. They’re just trying to increase the available options. Our current bike network is in its infancy. It’s not used a lot because it’s still not fully connected, forcing people onto the road or illegally onto a sidewalk.
Premier Doug Ford’s team even knows how dangerous it is to remove them as they’re now legislating that injured or killed cyclists and their families can’t sue the government. They know they’re putting people in harm’s way and are trying to prevent liability. Ridiculous.
Jordon Squires, London
Project complex
In his letter to the editor, Speed up road work (Nov. 20), R. Webb suggests the city or the contractor are lollygagging on construction on Oxford Street near Proudfoot Lane.
It appears the writer did not bother to ask the contractor or a city engineer about the complexity and timing of the job. Because of the nature of the job, it actually may be ahead of schedule. One must consider that to lollygag in this case could increase unnecessary liability exposure for everyone.
Please, do some rudimentary investigation to give your letter some credence.
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Walt Lonc, London
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Diverting attention
Rage-fuelled drivers of gas-powered vehicles, please join Doug Ford in eliminating bike lanes.
Meanwhile, you get stuck paying all the road repair and maintenance fees in gas taxes because EV owners don’t pay them and neither do bike riders.
It gets better: the Conservatives sunk tens of billions into EV manufacturing and battery plants in Ontario, which are about to crash due to Donald Trump’s election in U.S.
But stay focused on bike lanes.
The Conservatives are great at keeping their voters constantly enraged for that dopamine hit over silly distractions so they can continue to do backroom deals for donations with big business and developers.
The Liberal’s broader EV federal support includes hefty consumer subsidies, and charging infrastructure to increase EV sales, then add in the federal carbon tax rebate to lower-income families, seniors and farmers.
Thanks to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canadians own the Trans Mountain Pipeline, the greatest bargaining chip we have against Trump.
Meanwhile, London’s bike ridership has increased 48 per cent since 2023.
Studies also show bike riders shop at local stores more often.
Beth McCracken, London
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