City reports tripling of cyclists on Woodbine bike lanes in Toronto

Thestar.com
August 22, 2018
David Nickle

The installation of bike lanes on Woodbine Ave. has resulted in a near tripling of cyclists using the street in just two years -- and an increase in travel time for cars heading north on the street of just over two minutes during peak periods.

Those are results of two traffic counts on Woodbine between Cosburn Ave. and Gerrard St., one conducted in May 2016 and another in May 2018.

First installed in 2017, the bike lanes along Woodbine Avenue were immediately controversial, as residents south of Gerrard St. complained that the traffic congestion caused by narrowing Woodbine to a single lane were sending commuter traffic along residential streets.

The bike lanes, fully separated in part, run along Woodbine Ave. from O’Connor Dr. in the north to Dixon Ave. in the south. First installed in 2017, the lanes were immediately controversial, as residents south of Gerrard St. complained that the congestion caused by narrowing Woodbine to a single lane were sending commuter traffic along residential streets.

Since then, city transportation staff have made adjustments to turn lanes and traffic flow, and Toronto council has approved plans to adjust on-street parking north and south of Danforth.

The new traffic count numbers indicate that the bike lanes are being used.

Staff did counts over two one-week periods: May 11 to May 17, 2016 -- before the lanes were installed -- and another between May 12 and May 18, 2018 -- about a year after the lanes had been installed.

In 2016, the average number of cyclists ranged from 70 to 80 per day. In 2018, that number ranged between 220 and 230 a day -- nearly triple the number of cyclists.

There’s also been a 30 per cent increase of people cycling on Woodbine in the past 10 months alone. In Oct. 2017, there were 425 cyclists on that section of Woodbine. This July, counts on Woodbine south of Danforth Ave. saw a peak of 580 cyclists on one day.

Motor vehicle travel times were compared between May 2016 and May 2108, in both directions between O’Connor and Queen St. E., in three periods: morning (7-10 a.m.), midday (11 a.m -1 p.m.) and afternoon (4-7 p.m.).

In the morning, a northbound trip took 9:05 minutes, up from 8:36 minutes, and a southbound trip took 8:41 minutes, up from 8:23 minutes.

The midday southbound trip took a second less, 8:19 to 8:20 minutes. Northbound cars took 1:15 minutes longer, with their trip up to 8:48 minutes from 7:33 minutes in 2016.

The afternoon rush saw the longest delays. Northbound trips went from 9:16 to 11:57 minutes -- an increase of 2:41 minutes, and southbound trips increased from 8:20 to 10:32 minutes, an increase of 2:12 minutes.

The city also looked at the volume of traffic using side streets -- specifically Woodmount Ave. between Danforth and O’Connor, and Savoy Ave. and Heyworth Cres. east of Woodbine.

The city found no noticeable change in congestion on Woodmount or Savoy following the installation of the bike lanes.

There were no “before” stats available for Heyworth Cres., but counts delivered in October 2017 saw a total of 237 cars using Heyworth over an eight hour period. Cars moved at an average of 25 km/h in the 30 km/h posted speed zone.

The city will perform traffic studies on Cassels, Burgess and Duvermet Aves. in the fall of 2018.