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  City of Toronto Survey shows Cycling is on the Rise! (9 posts)

• Joe T. said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  It’s something that we all either suspected or downright knew… there are more and more Torontonians hopping on their bikes to do “utility” cycling (getting around by bike to do normal day-to-day things, like going to work, picking stuff up from the store, visiting friends, etc.)

  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.

  Read the full blog post for more details:
  http://bikingtoronto.com/blog/city-of-toronto-survey-shows-cycling-is-on-the-rise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=city-of-toronto-survey-shows-cycling-is-on-the-rise

• Joe T. said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  The National Post picked up this great story!
  http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2010/01/19/more-than-half-of-adults-in-toronto-cycle-study.aspx

  "More than half the adults in Toronto cycle, according to a city study released today.

  The study found that that 54% of Torontonians identify themselves as cyclists, up from 48% from a similar 1999 study.

  The most noticeable difference from the last survey is that almost a third of all cyclists commute by bike rather than just cycling for recreation.

  Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2010/01/19/more-than-half-of-adults-in-toronto-cycle-study.aspx#ixzz0d47ebNMI
  The National Post is now on Facebook. Join our fan community today."

• Joe T. said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  BlogTO has a great breakdown of the results:
  http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/01/survey_shows_increase_in_toronto_cyclists_but_also_safety_concerns/

  "As is often the case, the data from this survey can be made to tell a number of different stories. Supporters of the City's track record on cycling initiatives will note that commuter-based cycling is on the rise and that the sample group believes progress is being made when it comes to routes and facilities around Toronto.

  Those more critical of the City will, no doubt, classify a six per cent gain in cyclists over the 10 year period as unacceptably low."

• HappyStuffing said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  I'm happy to see there are more people cycling for commuting and recreation. Also awesome to see it getting some recognition from reputable sources.

  I think one thing that would make a substantial difference in encouraging more cyclist to get out there is educating drivers that cyclists also belong on the road – the middle of the lane even!

  I was honked at twice today going south from the northern end of town. Markham Rd/Lawrence area. I find that the more north you go in Toronto, the more ignorant people are about cycling rules.

  Just because i can fit in a little space beside a car and curb, doesn't mean i should.

  More drivers need to realize this fact rather than trying to honk us off the road. I believe more people would get out there and commute by bike if they knew more drivers understood this law and didn't act so intimidating to the uninitiated.

  This happens almost daily, i know other commuter here can relate to this.

  Right before you get to the red light or stop sign, do you find that drivers love to race ahead of you only to stop at the said light a moment later? At this point you end up rolling up to wait beside the driver anyway, because he gained about 1 second of time on you racing you to the light – but it is a moot point now anyway since you are both stopped together.

  It seems like drivers have this instinctual need to be ahead of the cyclist at all costs. They just can't fathom the idea that they might have to wait behind a cyclist at a light. So frustrating.

  I actually had a lady honk at me at an intersection while she was trying to turn left recently. Probably because she felt that as a cyclist, i had to yield to all cars. Problem is, i had the right-of-way going straight. She would have never honked had that been a car going straight.

• Joe T. said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  There is some promising news on this front, actually.

  I posted about it in my notes about the last Cycling Committee meeting:

  "Margaret Hastings-James (at her last Committee meeting as she is moving to Hamilton and starting a family – Congrats Margaret!) and Yvonne Bambrick presented progress on a great project that is providing input to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation on a Drivers Handbook revision. In short, the project is attempting to get more references to cyclists and pedestrians in the book that new drivers study when they get their licenses. Great language is proposed like “be aware and courteous to all road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians”. "

  Full Meeting Notes:
  http://bikingtoronto.com/blog/notes-from-the-toronto-cycling-committee/

• michael holloway said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  HappyStuffing,

  Great post Happy.

  Yes the further out of the core the weirder it gets.

  Thinking maybe it's the infrastructure it-self that is to blame for the behaviour. As we've seen with the ten pedestrian deaths in the last ten days, the out-of-the-core streets and avenues are not friendly places.

  The whole suburban sprawl thing was/is designed not to be a community, but to provide access by car to work, home and shopping mall. The closer you get the places that exemplify that norm the less it seems drivers are thinking about other kinds of users.

  Must be a alienating way to live, in those two car lonely nuclear nodes; not healthy for them or those around, in many ways.

  Jane Jacobs would say that town squares or better 'circles' must be created to promote the growth of a human urban culture. These new spaces would mix shopping (mom and pop stores) with larger retail, theatre, daycare, sports, out door recreation and political institutions. This mix would create a vibrant, local culture that would create local jobs, thus reducing the need for 6 lane semi-highways through neighbourhoods.

  Michael Holloway
  Twitter –> @m_holloway

• Paul T said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  I too agree with HappyStuffings comments. Until recently, I lived in Mississauga. I would commute by bike about 2/5 days a week into the city. Ironically I felt safer commuting in Mississauga then I did in Toronto, simply because I had no issue taking over a lane there. There is no street parking in Mississauga, so there is always at least 2 lanes of traffic. Even if I stayed to the right, people would change lanes to get around me so I stopped bothering. Sure the occasional guy would honk at me, but I just ignored them.

  In the city, people don't bother honking, they just cut you off

• Svend said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  Suburban arterial roads are the easiest places to put bike lanes, there's often room for them to be separated from traffic. There usually isn't street parking to deal with, thus no businesses will get up in arms if done. They will also act as a traffic calming measure, making roads safer for pedestrians as well.

• Todd Tyrtle said 7 months, 2 weeks ago:

  @Svend – I thought of that as I was biking up Wilmington north of Wilson last week. HUGE lanes but only one in each direction. It's a no-brainer, a stripe of paint and you're done.

  And what about some of the arterials up there? Look at Steeles west of Bathurst or Dufferin north of Sheppard? There's usually about 2 metres of grass, a *wide* sidewalk, and then another metre or two of grass. On streets like that it'd be so simple to put even physically separated lanes with signals without disrupting traffic or even inconveniencing the 3-4 pedestrians/day who use the sidewalks there. I know it's an unpopular move with some but that's why I have no problems cycling on the sidewalk on Dufferin between Finch and Steeles. Wide sidewalks with nobody on them, hardly any driveways/intersections, and when I do encounter pedestrians there's enough room for me to go off into the grass well away from them. I suppose that could be why they *haven't* made bike lanes there. Because for many they already *are* bike lanes.