Dr Francois Brouard

Years ago, while I was doing consulting work for the City of Sydney, Australia, there was an INFAMOUS day where a particularly bad state minister of transportation was stuck in traffic, and saw bike riders zoom by his limousine in a safe, protected bike-lane. He had a petty temper tantrum, and ordered that the bike-lane be ripped out. Those were people safely riding who would otherwise have been inside cars, making traffic even worse on that street. They were saving public money, improving their health (and public health costs), reducing pollution and emissions, improving their happiness and quality of life, enhancing their affordability, reducing noise, supporting businesses, reducing traffic congestion, and making more space for better streets and cities for everyone. That transportation minister didn’t understand urban transportation. He didn’t understand geometry. He sure didn’t understand the public interest. Or he did understand, but didn’t care. There were plenty of studies and evidence proving that bike-lanes in Sydney weren’t causing congestion. The bike-lane hadn’t even replaced a lane of car traffic! It replaced street parking, which ironically can contribute to street congestion. He wasted public money, put lives in danger, made the city less healthy, undermined the economic development success of the city, increased pollution, made congestion worse. and a lot more. All because he was petty. It was pretty much one of the dumbest, most damaging things I’ve ever seen a bad politician do. And that’s saying a lot. And now we have what’s happening with the Ford Government in Ontario, with his war on evidence-based decision making, bike-lanes and better cities. Sound familiar, Ontario? The good news? That Australian politician actually didn’t last very long in government.