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Last week, the lengthy report and eight final recommendations from the cycling advisory group weren’t received well by the civic works committee, several members of whom decried the suggestions as too much, too expensive and overstepping the committee’s role.

Coun. Shawn Lewis was particularly vocal about his issues with the report. He believes thecycling committee wants to direct council on climate change rather than make recommendations. He also said the committee’s recommendations would be a drain on staff time and city resources.

“We are taking (climate change) seriously, but for a particular group of people to choose to make this an opportunity to essentially declare a war on cars is a problem for me,” he said.

Lewis said he found some parts of the cycling advisory report helpful, but others – including the moratorium on road widening – “objectionable” and “irresponsible.” He says he’s interested in cycling lanes in his east-end Ward 2, but won’t embrace many of the recommendations from a “vocal minority which thinks this shift to cycling is the only way to tackle climate change.”

The cycling advisory committee pointed to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase other modes of transportation, especially cycling, walking and public transit to meet the goals city hall has set.

Those include reducing the 1990s level of greenhouse gas by 37 per cent over the next decade and 80 per cent by 2050. Recent data released by city hall show personal vehicles emitted 960,000 tonnes of CO2 in London last year, by far the largest source of greenhouse gases in the city. Cars were followed by housing with heating and cooling pushing 590,000 tonnes into the air in London in 2018.