Latest / Kvetch & Release / Ontario moves to restrict new bike lanes at expense of vehicle lanes

Transcript

Ontario moves to restrict new bike lanes at expense of vehicle lanes · Kvetch & Release

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Good morning everyone, Welcome to the Dan McDonald show. John
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Lydkey here filling in nine oh seven on the sixteenth
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of October. Can you believe that? I still can't. Pretty
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: hard to believe, but hey, here we are. You can't.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Just can't fret over it now, you can't. Middle of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the week Wednesday, and we were just listening on Mornings
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: with Mike and Meg with the Minister of Transportation for
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the Province of Ontario about moving towards the new policy
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: regarding bike lanes with the province restricting new bike lanes
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: amid an out of control process requiring municipalities to seek
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: provincial approval before removing lanes of traffic to add on
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: new bike paths, the reason being saying that informed decision
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: making and oversight will be brought to a process that
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: is quote frankly out of control. We spoke about this
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: yesterday on the program with Ward nine Counselor Kieran McKenzie
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: about this and joining us to discuss right now, is
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: our member of provincial Parliament for Windsor to come see
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Andrew Dowe joins me, Hey, Andrew, how you doing?
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: That's bad? John?
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning, Thanks so much for joining us
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: here right off the bat with things. So you know, listen,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: we chatted a little bit about this yesterday on the air.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: You and I talked a bit briefly off air about this.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I guess my only question right off the bat here is,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: you know you were an elected official at the councilor level.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Why do you think that the province needs to be
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: in control of this process rather than local elected officials.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: You know what, we have the municipal class environmental assessment
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: that governs whether you what you can do in terms
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: of the call consultation with the public. And so a
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: few years ago, two thousand and seven, the conversion of
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: lanes of traffic into bicycle lanes was put into something
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: called Schedule eight plus or a prime, which took away
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: effectively the the the changeover where you would get a
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: minister's approval. So it did essentially decentralize the decision making
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: on bike lanes. But part of that there's a condition
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: to it though it's pre prove provided you go through
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: the steps to do the traffic analysis and demonstrate that
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: there are no undue circumstances. And if you do have
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: undue circumstances, you've got to find a way to mitigate them.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: There's there's been kind of a a difficulty in finding
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the homework used to identify what the The challenge has
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: been where with these traffic cannalyzis where are they? And
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: so we have seen very very clearly in the East
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: West corridors and the GTA particularly, And I'll use it
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: an example. Last night, I left Toronto at five to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: come home. I got back about eleven o'clock. There just
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: are no arteries and just that time of the day
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: is when commute commutes happen. There's there's no relief. We
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: need to have a more optimized system. So removing travel
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: travel lanes just when they're already congested is not helping
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: our environment, it's not helping us spend time with our
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: families and and really we need to refine a better
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: balance than we had before. So to your question, why
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: why should the province be involved? It's always been involved.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: It had it had to be delegated bat under the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: municipal class the A two thousand and seven. Now'd say,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: you know what, if you're gonna remove a travel lane,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: send us the work and we'll say, uh, well, we'll
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: give our comments. But it is it is another step
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: in the process, but quite honestly, I think it's a
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: necessary one given some of the installations we've seen and
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: the lack of traffic analyzes demonstrated to show how the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: traff could mansion.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Is this an issue though for us down here in
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Windsor Essex? Or is this primarily as you said, you know,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I hear GTA issue, King Street issue, commute issue from
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the burbs getting into the core of downtown. I don't
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: see this being an issue here. I mean, we don't
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: even have a protected bike lane and windsor.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what, I think. I've seen the news reports.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: The Victoria lane is one that's cited as, oh, this
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: could be in jeopardy with such a policy, and that's nonsense, right, Like,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: there's no traffic issue on Victoria. So I think if
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: we go back about twenty years Riverside Drive, you used
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: see four lanes from Strabane going all the way to downtown,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and so that Riverside Drive was shrunken to two lanes
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: with a center left periodically and bike lanes. That was
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: two thousand and three, two thousand and four ish. Now
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: there has been no particular impact to traffic circulation. We
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: did reduce the number of through lanes on Riverside Drive,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: but it did have an impact that traffic analysis showed
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: the level service was not being lost. So if that
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: happens today, that work had sent up to the province
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: and they say, yes, you're good. So I struggle to
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: find a case in the City of Windsor where this
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: might be an issue. Perhaps if someone wanted to put
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: bike lanes on Dougal Avenue, for example, and knowing how
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: congested it is leaving downtown, and yet let's take out
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: a lane on Doogal so in addition to the off
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: off road trail, we decided to take off a lane
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: into bike lanes. I could see the province saying, you
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: know what, this this may not be the right balance,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: but it'll be dependent on what's submitted to the province.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: If the analysis shows that it's not. When you stop
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: commuters from getting home in any meaningful way by removing
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: lane on Dougal, then then why not do it that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: It's not meant to be punitive, it's meant to just
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: make sure that the decision is being made in a
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: balanced way.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Well, and it's not just about bike lanes that are
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: going to be encompassed in this legislation. There's other things
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: as well, such as raising all four hundred highways to
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: one hundred and ten kilometers an hour and then certain
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: ones up to even one hundred or twenty and twenty
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: or higher.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: You know what, it's been piloted forbid. And you are
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: very good earlier on recognizing that the sea limits came
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: down because of the oil crisis in nineteen seventies. But
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: the roads are actually designed from a geometric perspective to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: handle higher speeds than they have been posted for so
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: at even residential roads too, And this is kind of
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: transmission planning in a nutshell. The driver's psychology is impacted
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: by the road design. So the wider you make the roads,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: the less encumbrance is, the faster people will go. So
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: if you want it, if you want people go slowly,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: got a name of the road down. We have wide highways,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: they're designed for these higher speeds, and those pilot areas
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: where the one hundred and tens are even posted, I
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: struggle to find any issues that have resulted from that removal.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: So I think it's a sensible next step for those
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: control of access highways, and we even see in the North,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: there are roads that we would probably post at seventy
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: that are one hundred in the North because of the circumstances.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: So I'd say, don't throw the baby out the bath
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: water if you're concerned about speed. Obviously there are alternative
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: routes as well, but local munipalities still have control over
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: there there roadways and how they post them. But if
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: it makes sense to allow the speeds to occur, then
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: why not. We have not seen any evidence that the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: four one, four oh three other highways that have been
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: raised have had any particular impact on safety.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: There's also going to be a legislated cap on drive
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: test fees for driver's licenses, which is one of those
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: nice wedge issues that you guys put forward that makes
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: it difficult for opposition parties to try to undo. They'd
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: have to come forward and say we want to raise
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: fees for all of you people, which is you know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: smart tactic quite frankly on your part, not your part specifically,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: but the party's part. But I do want to quickly
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: touch on this pothole reserve capital fund. What is that about.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: We have municipalities that have wide wide geographies that that
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: own roads. They need to be kept in good repair
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: for the safety and security of the users. And sometimes
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: there are so few residents contributing into into the pot.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: They're sparsely populated areas, but the roads to let to
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: be maintained. So this fund helps out small municipalities and
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: gets them on their way. If they need to repair
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: and replace certain certain problem areas and they need some help,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: this fund allows them to be helped to the provincial level.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, hey, Andrew, I really do appreciate your time
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: on this one. I think that we're going to be
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: getting some questions in about it. Do you do you
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: have a ten minutes more to stick around if someone
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: wants to.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Ask you a question, yes, absolutely, Okay, cool, Hey, what.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: We're going to do then, Folks is cut to a
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: commercial right now. But if you have a question for
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: our MPP for windsor to come see Andrew Dowie. Now
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: it's a great time to call in about this bike
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: laying issue, that well, the whole changes to the road
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: system that we have here. You can call her text
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: five one nine seven nine two c KLW again that
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: number five one nine seven nine two two five five
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: nine and we will be back with Windsor to comsy
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: MPP Andrew Dowie. Right after the break, John Lydkey here
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: on AM eight hundred