They’ve released their numbers, and they are impressive:

• Between the hours of 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM on a typical weekday in September 2010, 19,162 cyclists entered Toronto’s downtown core, and 15,241 exited the core.

• The western screenline at Spadina Avenue had the highest bicycle volumes, carrying 45% of all cyclists travelling to and from the core.

• The majority (62%) of cyclists were male, wore a helmet (54%), and rode on the street rather than on the sidewalk (95%). Very few (0.32%) of counted cyclists were passengers (e.g. in a child seat or trailer).

This is a great release of information and if the City can continue to undertake these cyclist counting initiatives, it can address anti-bike infrastructure sentiment with cold, hard, statistical facts.

• Read the Summary Leaflet (PDF)
• View the Full Report (PDF)

The Bloor Viaduct is one of the perfect places in Toronto to do this, as it is what I like to call a “funnel point” over the Don Valley… it’s one of very few places that someone biking to work can cross the valley… and it’s a 3 km ride north (Millwood) or almost 2 km south (Gerrard) to get to the next bridge.

As you can see by the graph above, the 2 hours between 7:15 – 9:15 am sees a lot of cyclists heading over the Viaduct westbound towards downtown Toronto.    A total of 582 cyclists passed me in those 120 minutes (an avg. of 4.85 per minute) with the highest number between approx. 8:20 to after 9:00 am.

Now some photos I took while I sat in my lovely tree-shaded spot, watching commuters go by:

I first sat on a round concrete bench close to the Bloor / Castle Frank intersection, but the trees and grass were calling me...

ahh, trees and shade, and me with a notepad.

Line-ups are common at the Bloor & Castle Frank intersection.

Recumbent riders join the fun too.

Okay, okay… you talked me into it.  Here are a couple short videos of people biking through the intersection on their way to work.

What are other “funnel points” for bikers in Toronto? Popular ways under the 401? Over the Humber valley? Across railway crossings?

I just wanted to post quickly to let you know that since re-launching BikingToronto in early January we’ve had 100 people register on the site as members!!!

Pretty good for just 2 months, I have to say.  Those were winter months too.

If you are one of those 100 people, then thank you and welcome to the site.  You are posting and discussing and biking and making the site better.

The new “sociable”, interactive and just plain better BikingToronto was planned to take the collection of Toronto Cycling info to the next level – and that level is YOU.   Whether “you” are a commuting, racing, touring or recreational cyclist, or whether you are involved in a bike organization or a bike store or supplier – what you think and how you interact with others is important.

If you’re not a BikingToronto member yet, you can register here (don’t worry, it’s free, quick and easy!).

You can also check out our Site Guide if you’re curious about the features BikingToronto has brought to Toronto cyclists to connect.

At any time, feel free to shoot me an email at joe@bikingtoronto.com if you have any questions (or just want to chat).

Now our gut feelings have the hard data to match!  The City of Toronto has just released the results of a 2009 study with questions that matched those in a 1999 study (asking the same questions is *essential* for any meaningful trend analysis when working with stats):

The survey, conducted in 2009 by Ipsos Reid, found that more Toronto residents were cycling to school and work than 10 years ago. A total of 16 per cent said they used their bicycles to commute to work or school, up from 11 per cent in 1999. And many of those who commute by bike are riding more days a week than in the past.

In addition to there being more people on bikes, the survey has also indicated (as so many other surveys about cycling have in the past) that cycling infrastructure that improves safety and bicycle parking facilities are the most important wished-for items from Toronto’s cyclists:

Investments in the cycling infrastructure over the past 10 years are being recognized and the survey reveals that 72 per cent of Torontonians believe that the overall quality of cycling routes and facilities has improved compared to 1999. However, cyclists and non-cyclists alike agree that having more bike lanes on streets would have the greatest impact on improving cycling in the city. In fact, 66 per cent of non-cyclists, 77 per cent of utilitarian cyclists and 68 per cent of recreational cyclists believe that separated bike lanes on city streets would greatly improve cycling in Toronto.

In addition to a comprehensive cycling network, the importance of bicycle parking facilities is also articulated. The survey showed that secure bicycle parking at transit stations has the potential to increase combined cycling and transit trips. One third of cyclists reported combining biking and public transportation sometimes. The majority of these cyclists (74 per cent of utilitarian and 66 per cent of recreational cyclists) say they would combine cycling and public transit more often if secure bicycle parking was provided at subway stations.

You can read more about the results on the City of Toronto’s webpage.

Key Findings from the 2009 City of Toronto Cycling Survey (PDF)
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/reports/pdf/2010-survey-backgrounder.pdf

Full Survey Results and Comparison between 1999 and 2009 (PDF)
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/reports/pdf/cycling_study_1999_and_2009.pdf

Patrick Cain at the Toronto Star loves maps (who doesn’t?). He’s done a couple general commuting maps for the GTA, but has just released one just about Commuter Cyclists, organized by Census Tracts.

The map looks pretty much like you’d expect… higher levels of people using bicycles as their primary mode of getting to work in the downtown core (where car traffic moves slower and there are more bikelanes) and less and less as you move into the old boroughs of Toronto and the suburbs.

However, and you can see this in the screenshot above… some areas of Toronto are not only “hotbeds” of commuting by bike, but the census data also shows how many people identified “walking” and “transit” as their primary means of getting to work.

In particular, the area immediately west of the University of Toronto (which a workforce of 1815 people) is not only high in bike commuters (17%, or ~300 people), but also in those who walk to work (32%, or 580 people) and transit users (also 32%, or 580).

That leaves 19% of this census tract who get to work via automobile… just slightly more than by bike, and less than by walking or transit.

It’s good to think about things like this in an election year.

It’s nice to see so many people commuting by bike in Toronto’s core.

• Link to Map
• Article about Map
• BikingToronto Maps Page (has links to Patrick’s previous maps)
• Discussion in the Commuting Group