Study proves value of bike lanes,
For decades, Toronto has been stuck in a fictitious and divisive debate pitting cars against bikes, in a fabricated battle of convenience versus safety. For many people, defining themselves as a cyclist or a driver is impossible — they regularly get around using both bike and car. Ultimately, everyone’s goal should be the same — safe streets for all.
Why has a bike lane on Bloor St. been a dream for decades? Bloor St. stretches across the city, making an ideal undisrupted east-west corridor.
Bloor is one of the only streets downtown that can accommodate bike lanes because it is not restricted by streetcar tracks. Bloor St. is a vibrant main street for those communities that border it, where people stop, shop and enjoy the street life.
The support for the Bloor St. bike lanes has come from local residents associations, cycling advocates, cultural institutions, Olympians, environmental groups, and ER doctors. And, after a yearlong pilot project, it’s time to decide the future of the bike lanes on Bloor.
The Bloor bike lane pilot project has been the most studied transportation project in recent memory. The city conducted traffic counts on Bloor and surrounding streets and measured travel time using vehicles, video analysis and more.
An opinion survey was filled out by 14,000 people. The Parking Authority conducted parking studies on streets and in Green P lots.
The local business associations and city commissioned the University of Toronto to interview shoppers and business owners. The city collected point-of-sale data on debit and credit transactions in the area, surrounding area, and across city wide averages.
Finally, while it is too early to get complete data, preliminary data from the University of Toronto used camera footage of Bloor St. to examine safety and count “near misses” between all types of road users.
And the result? Bike lanes on Bloor St. work.
On Wednesday, city staff released its report on the Bloor bike lanes and the results are crystal clear — the number of bikes has almost doubled (to 5,000 daily riders), making it the second most travelled bike lane in Toronto after only one year in operation. Twenty-five per cent of riders on Bloor are new cyclists. Kevin Costner was right — if you build it, they will come.
Driver delays on Bloor St. experienced in the first months of the project have been halved thanks to improvements made mid-pilot, while travel times on Dupont and Harbord Sts. remained consistent. The “near miss” collision data shows a sharp decrease in conflicts, down 44 per cent overall since the pilot started. And everyone using the road now feels safer — not just cyclists, but drivers and pedestrians too.
Interviews of shoppers show us that 90 per cent of those coming to the pilot area are coming by foot, transit or bike and the amount of money people spend has increased since the pilot started.
Vacancy rates have stayed the same and the number of customers has increased. Analysis of point-of-sale data shows that spending in the pilot area is up 4.45 per cent.
As city councillors and local residents, we were able to see first-hand how well the Bloor bike lanes worked. As one of the most exciting and ambitious cycling projects Toronto has ever attempted, the pilot project has reinforced what we had personally seen to be a significant move toward safety on our streets.
Are the lanes perfect? We know they’re not. Adjustments need to be made to improve accessibility, facilitate turn restrictions, and make the bike lanes themselves even better for users. However, pilots aren’t meant to be perfect — they are the starting point.
We’ve been able to put a bike lane on Bloor, see how it works, and make improvements to make it better.
With a permanent lane, we can do bigger and better things to make a bike lane that is even more successful.
What now? City council needs to vote yes to make these lanes permanent, to send a message that Toronto is a 21st century city, and that it wants to be.
Tell your city councillor and our mayor that the old debates are over.
It’s time to send a strong signal that the days of bikes versus cars have passed — that we’re a city that will redesign our streets to make everyone safe.
The number of bikes on Bloor St. has almost doubled (to 5,000 daily riders) after only one year in operation. And everyone using the road now feels safer — not just cyclists, but drivers and pedestrians too