Using bus lanes/HOV lanes in Toronto

Similar to the post about using London bus lanes, but we have the advantage of most of the bike/bus/taxi lanes in Toronto now being legal for motorcycles. The city government has also been open-minded enough to not charge for motorcycle street parking in Toronto. And there are a small but growing number of Motorcycle Only parking areas on downtown streets.
The next step is to convince the provincial government to allow motorcycles in High Occupancy Lanes on highways. These are lanes can be used during rush hour only by vehicles with 3 or more occupants. Even if a rider has a passenger, they're still not allowed in HOV lanes. Anyone living in the Province of Ontario, write your Member of Provincial Parliament and keep writing them to lobby the Minister of Transportation to allow bikes in HOV lanes. Bikes are truly part of the reduced congestion model, both while moving and while parked.

 

Getting this accepted in a few cities has got to be a step towards making bikes more favourably treated everywhere.

It's not just he convenience, it means that planners have to stop thinking of us as an inconvenience, or leisure riders at best, but recognise that they are actually a useful form of transport and make allowances for us, rather than legislate us off the road.