• Separated (from cars and pedestrians)^[1],
• Protected (not just painted lines and local street bikeway sharrows), and
• Connected bike lanes and pathways.
• Road Safety Measures (Traffic Cameras, No right on Red, 30 km/hr roads next to bike lanes).
• Police data is only accounting for ~10% of emergency room visits by bicyclists and pedestrians^[2] and Halifax trauma specialist, Dr. Weerdenburg, says that injuries are not only increasing in numbers but also in seriousness^[3].

• More room for drivers who need to use their vehicles.
• Bike Riding and Bike Tourism are good for business^[4].
• Cycling improves workplace productivity and learning^[4].
• Economic benefits. 2 to 1 return on Halifax’s bicycle infrastructure^[5].
• Safer roads for everyone.
• Climate and Environmental benefits. Transportation sector = 24% of greenhouse gases^[4].

We can no longer accept leaving behind:

• Households struggling with poverty and food insecurity.
• Housing insecure and homeless individuals and families.
• Women and children.
• Marginalized groups such as LGBTQ2SI+, African Nova Scotian, Disabled, Seniors, etc.
• Cost savings for individuals and families. Owning / operating a vehicle costs $10k+ yr.

• Kids should be able to safely bike to school, to parks and recreation.
• What kind of world do we want to be handing over to our kids?
• Bicycling improves the health, socialization, and educational outcomes of our kids^[6].

• The World Health Organization’s ‘Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030’ says that policy actions on physical health have multiplicative health, social, and economic benefits. Globally, 23% of adults and 81% of adolescents do not meet WHO’s recommendations on physical activity for health. Specific action is needed to strengthen and provide equal access to pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure.
• Approximately 80% of commuter trips in HRM are shorter than 3km walking and 5km biking^[7].

• Reallocating road space in cities, (for transit lanes, separated and protected bike lanes, pedestrian priority streets, and wider sidewalks), can make life more affordable, pleasant, healthier, and just, while also benefitting the local economy. While traffic evaporation has been well documented for over 20 years, most decision-makers are still under the impression that reducing car lanes, to incentivize significant traffic modal shift, to walking, bicycling, rolling, and transit, will make traffic worse.
• Consistently, when road space has been reallocated, in many cities around the world, traffic has not increased, as experts and media predicted, it ‘evaporated’^[8].

With population doubling, where will we put all the cars, unless we shift substantially to cycling, transit and walking.