Is Toronto finally starting to get serious about its bike network?

Toronto City Council has given the green light to a new, reasonably ambitious Cycling Network Plan paving the way for the addition of new bikeways across various areas of the city and improvements to existing ones. These projects aim to enhance safety and mobility by providing better cycling connections to transit options, parks, schools, businesses, and residential areas. It is worth noting that these initiatives also include significant enhancements for pedestrians, transit users, and motorists.

Toronto has quietly gone about a significant expansion of its cycling network over the last few years including a major push during the pandemic installing a number of temporary protected bike lanes that have since been made permanent.

Of course, there is still some serious bike lash happening, and at least two candidates in the upcoming mayoral election are non-sensically threatening to rip all the bike lanes back out.

The approved plans encompass the installation of 8.6 kilometers of new bikeways, which are part of five projects that have already undergone design and consultation processes.

“There is a critical need for safe and connected bikeways in Toronto and I am thrilled that we are on track to meet council’s goal to deliver 100 kilometres of new bikeways by 2024,” said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie. “Expanding cycling options is the right thing to do to ensure safer roads and more ways for people to move around our city.”

The projects and their respective areas of focus are as follows:

1. Bloor Street West Complete Street Extension: This project will extend Bloor Street West from Runnymede Road to Resurrection Road, enabling cyclists to enjoy an improved biking experience in this area.
2. Bartlett-Havelock-Gladstone Cycling Connections: The initiative involves improvements on Gladstone Avenue from Dundas Street to Peel Avenue, and the installation of a new traffic signal at the intersection of Dufferin Street and Peel Avenue.
3. Cabbagetown Cycling Connections: This project aims to enhance cycling connectivity in multiple streets, including Gerrard Street from Parliament Street to Sumach Street, Sumach Street from Wellesley Avenue to Gerrard Street, Sackville Street from Wellesley Avenue to Gerrard Street, Winchester Street from Parliament Street to Ontario Street, and Ontario Street from Carlton Street to Aberdeen Avenue.
4. Sheppard Avenue East Complete Street: The focus of this project is on improving Sheppard Avenue East from Clairtrell Road to Leslie Avenue, thereby enhancing the biking experience along this stretch.
5. Superior Avenue: The initiative aims to improve Superior Avenue from Lake Shore Boulevard West to Stanley Avenue, making it more conducive for cyclists.

Furthermore, the report highlights plans to enhance existing bikeways in two segments of Dundas Street East from Hiltz Avenue to Alton Avenue and from Rhodes Avenue to Coxwell Avenue.

This recent approval builds upon Toronto’s major expansion of bikeways in recent years. Between 2018 and 2022, the city witnessed the installation of over 96 kilometres of new bikeways. Additionally, last year alone, 18 kilometres of new bikeways were added, while 21 kilometres underwent upgrades. Presently, the city has 17 kilometres of bikeways under construction.

Robert Zaichkowski is a Toronto-based cycling activist who worked on the Bloor Street campaign. He said the city has other big cycling expansion plans in the works, as well.

“The City of Toronto is also undertaking the eglintonTOday project to install protected bike lanes along the underground portion of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT which will be installed from Keele Street to Mount Pleasant Road in (2024) and from Mount Pleasant to Brentcliffe Roads at a later date. The Danforth-Kingston corridor is also in the works with public consultations expected later this spring,” he explained. “Should everything materialize, Toronto will soon have not one, but two continuous 30-kilometre east-west bikeways along Bloor-Danforth-Kingston (Kipling Avenue to Scarborough Golf Club Road) and Eglinton (Etobicoke Creek to Kennedy Road).”

EglintonTOday was scheduled for 2023, but has been delayed to align with the opening of the Crosstown LRT.

There has been a somewhat loosely organized protest group speaking out against bike lanes in the city on major routes, suggesting bicyclists should be shuffled off to side roads and basically offering up standard myths about bike infrastructure like they cause congestion and are bad for business.

Zaichkowski disagrees.

“TCAT has done several studies along Bloor Street which showed only 10 to 20 percent of people arrive in The Annex and Bloor West Village by car, while people who walk or bike spend more than those who drive,” he said. “The 2016-17 pilot from Shaw Street to Avenue Road showed business sales went up and I anticipate the same will happen in Bloor West Village and The Kingsway. Businesses will also benefit from the ability to convert parking spaces into CaféTO patios — which generated 49 times more revenue than when the same spaces were used for parking.”

In 2021, there was a study in Toronto that showed that investing in good bicycle infrastructure actually doubled the number of cyclists in that area, invariably with some leaving their car at home or never getting one. Want to solve congestion city folk? Put safe cycling infrastructure everywhere you can and watch the magic happen.