Bloor bike lanes should stay: city report

Transportation staff are recommending that the pilot project of downtown lanes be made permanent.

Thestar.com
Oct. 11, 2017
By Ben Spurr

City transportation staff are recommending that council make the pilot project of separated bike lanes on Bloor St. permanent, paving the way for what would be a huge victory for Toronto's cycling advocates.

A highly anticipated report released Wednesday morning determined that the lanes have achieved the key objectives of improving safety on the corridor, dramatically increasing cycling rates, and minimizing negative effects on other road users.

At a press conference at city hall, local councillors Mike Layton and Joe Cressy said the report shows the pilot project has been a success, and should put to rest the debate over whether bike lanes can work on a busy downtown street.

"For too long, bike lanes in the city have been seen as a divisive issue. It's been seen as a debate between bikes and cars. Not anymore," said Cressy, who along with Layton has been a vocal proponent of the project.

Mayor John Tory, speaking at a SmartTrack event in Leslieville, said the study indicates the Bloor lanes have had an overall "positive impact," and announced he would throw his support behind making them permanent.

"And, so, I will support the staff recommendation to keep the bike lanes, with continued improvements to be made to safety, street design and practical improvements for local businesses," he said.

Council approved the bike lanes on a trial basis last May, following decades of advocacy from the city's cycling community. They were installed along a 2.4-kilometre stretch of Bloor between Avenue Rd. and Shaw St. in August, 2016, at a cost of $500,000.

To measure its progress, city staff launched what they described as the "most comprehensive performance evaluation undertaken for a cycling project in the city of Toronto," and the resulting report contains a wealth of data.

It determined that within a year of being installed, the lanes were the second busiest cycling facility in the city. Cycling on Bloor increased by 49 per cent to an average of 4,925 riders per day, with roughly 25 per cent of the increased ridership representing new cyclists. The rest diverted from other routes.

Preliminary road safety data suggested collision rates dropped, and conflicts between bikes and motorized vehicles decreased by 61 per cent.

Although the lanes initially caused significant delays for drivers, modifications transportation staff made to signal timing cut the increased travel times in half, the report found. Data collected in June showed during the afternoon rush hour, drivers faced delays of 4 minutes and 15 seconds, compared to the eight minutes and 30 seconds recorded shortly after the lanes were installed.

The bike lanes necessitated the removal of a significant number of on-street parking spots, which some local business complained hurt their sales. The report found no negative economic impacts, however.

In a survey, local merchants actually reported a growth in the number of customers. Payment activity collected from Moneris, a credit- and debit-card processing company, indicated total spending in the pilot area increased more than in the surrounding neighbourhood.

The lanes also fared well in a public opinion poll, which found 74 per cent of local residents backed the project. Among respondents who drive and don't cycle, 57 per cent opposed the lanes.

City staff concluded the "pilot project has demonstrated that a cycling facility can be successfully implemented on one of the busiest and most constrained sections of Bloor St," and council should consider extending them the length of the Bloor-Danforth corridor.

Jared Kolb, executive director of advocacy group Cycle Toronto, predicted the positive results on Bloor would make it easier to install bike lanes in other parts of the city.

"This really was a test case," he said. "To see it working like this here, I think it helps to pave the way for an expansion of the cycling network on other streets."

David Harrison, chair of the Annex Residents' Association, called on the city to make the lanes permanent.

"The staff report shows the pilot bike lanes have decreased conflict between bike riders and motorists," he said in a statement.

"Toronto is growing and changing. A growing population requires we find ways to share our limited infrastructure. And everyone has to be assured of safety."

Transportation staff are recommending some modifications to the lanes to improve safety and traffic flow. They include green-paint markings at conflict zones, left turn "bike boxes" at intersections, and enhanced barriers to better separate cyclists from cars.

The report will go before the public works committee next week. Council is expected to vote in November on whether to take up staff's recommendation.

Bloor St. bike lanes by the numbers

49% - amount cyclist volume on Bloor increased

16%- amount car traffic decreased

$476,639 -loss of city revenue due to removal of on-street parking

90% - visitors to Bloor who don't arrive by car

18% - visitors who ride their bikes

4.45% - amount customer spending on Bloor increased

25% - amount cycling counts on nearby Harbord St. declined

78% - survey respondents who said they biked more often because of the Bloor lanes