It is time that we have to stop bowing and paying homage to the automobile. We may still need them, but we should begin to look at other ways to get around that are better for your health and in turn help you save money. It is time return the road back to the bicycle and pedestrians.
This isn't really about the 'automobile' per se, it is about the basic need for people to get around efficiently which for the vast majority of people is by car. Until there are better options that will accommodate the majority it is simply pointless and unreasonable to 'target' the use of the car.
I don't know if you use transit or not to commute, but you know how people can make transit a bigger issue? By using transit. The more demand there is for it, the more money the government will spend on it. This is what bicyclists are doing, by riding to work every day and getting occasionally mowed down by cars. They are creating demand for bicycle lanes with their bodies instead of talking about how they support future bicycle lane development.
It is human nature to take the path of least resistance. Nobody is going to voluntarily spend more time commuting using an inadequate system of transit when they can do so more efficiently in a car... and this is not what bicyclists are doing either, by the way. They are choosing the option that makes the most sense to them, but which only makes sense to about 11% of the total commuting population of the city of Toronto, per the stats posted by Kettal.
As for me, I live in downtown Burlington and am walking distance to my office. Some days I walk and some days I drive if I know I will have appointments or errands at various different locations. I am planning to buy a bike in the next month or so because we do have bike lanes throughout my neighbourhood. When I come into the city I always drive because the train schedule is too infrequent and it connects to a transit system that cannot get me efficiently to the various places I may need to go, whether for business or pleasure.
But I think a lot of drivers - once again, perhaps not you - think that they will wait until transit reaches some level of perfection before using it. When will that happen? Planning and constructing new lines takes a long time - maybe 2020? So I guess until then, we shouldn't even talk about bicycle lanes. And what will the planners base transit demand upon? The people who say they support transit but aren't actually using it? And what if we add more lines and drivers still don't want to use transit? Well, I guess bicyclists are just screwed.
No, once there is a commitment to transit let the replanning of Toronto streets begin! Why not plan them comprehensively in a way that will actually make sense to bicyclists as well?
... But currently our streets are skewed very heavily toward car traffic. Creating a little bit of a negative incentive for car drivers by making it harder to drive downtown might actually help support demand for other uses, like transit. As economists will tell you, you aren't going to push people to sustainable energy uses if you don't a) invest in other energy uses but also b) provide more disincentives for using oil. If there's no pain, people do not feel a need to change their behaviour, and increased transit and sustainable energy will remain pipe dreams we are always hoping for while we continue our (cheaper and easier) unsustainable behaviours.
I don't entirely disagree with this point, exept that in most major cities with good public transit I always find it more inconvenient to have a car. I have family in the suburbs of London England and nobody would dream of driving into the city where a) it has been made inconvenient to do so but b) it is also actually easier to get around without a car. In other words there are inconveniences to getting around in any city and we do have to accept this, but that transit should always be the least inconvenient of options.
The gridlock problem isn't really a big deal downtown. Some streets such as Adelaide and Spadina get backed up during rush hour, but the growing traffic problems are all along Hwy 401, and in Peel and York. If you ever venture south of Bloor once in a while, you will see that thousands of businessmen, doctors, nurses, and others already bike to work every day.
... and 90% of people DON'T. What's your point? Gridlock happens everywhere downtown except possibly on Sundays, and though some neighbourhoods are definitely calmer these are not the ones handling the massive influx of people travelling into and out of them daily, so to portray gridlock as a non-issue within the city is patently wrong as anybody who has sat for hours in bumper to bumper traffic on city streets would agree.