The Centre for Active…

The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) is strongly opposed to Bill 212 and requests that it be withdrawn in its present form. Given that active transportation plays a critical role in creating environmentally and economically sustainable cities, TCAT has a mandate to increase knowledge and evidence about walking and cycling in our city and beyond. This has been the cornerstone activity of TCAT since its inception in 2008.

The evidence is clear about why we need more — not fewer — bike lanes, especially on major arterial streets where the majority of traffic deaths and serious injuries occur. Bike lanes save lives. Bike lanes are efficient for moving people. Bike lanes help people get to the places they need and want to go. Bike lanes provide transportation options. Bike lanes reduce traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Bike lanes enhance our health and wellness. The evidence is so clear and the benefits so wide-ranging that jurisdictions worldwide — from Copenhagen to Paris to Tokyo, not to mention Montreal and Vancouver — are installing large networks of well-connected, high-quality bike infrastructure.

Contrary to all evidence and common sense, Bill 212 threatens the viability and survival of Ontario's established and planned bike lane networks. As proposed on October 21, 2024, the Bill will curtail the construction of new bike lanes across the province. The addendum released on October 31, 2024, further proposes to remove existing bike lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street, and University Avenue in the City of Toronto and reinstate traffic lanes for motor vehicles.

Bill 212 in its entirety lacks credibility because it proposes to increase the number of cars on the road in its effort to reduce congestion. Building more and bigger highways will only induce demand resulting in more and more motor vehicle traffic. It also displays dismal short-sightedness for the province to invest billions of dollars in transit in Toronto, and then make it easier to drive on roads that have subway lines underneath.

Prior to Bill 212, one of the most contentious arguments against bike lanes was put forward by merchant associations in North America, especially when bike lanes reduce on-street parking. Until recently, there was very little evidence to either support or unsubstantiate such fears. So, 15 years ago, TCAT established a research program to address this gap.

On three occasions between 2009 and 2017, TCAT studied the local economic impacts (positive, negative or neutral) of removing on-street parking to install a bike lane. Ultimately, the findings have disproven the myth that parking is essential to downtown small business, and in fact, have a positive effect by enabling increased foot traffic.

Like other road users, people on bicycle are trying to get from Point A to Point B using the most direct route. Because so many destinations are concentrated on major streets, this often entails riding on roads where the volume and/or speed of motor vehicle traffic is high. Bloor Street represents a priority east-west bicycle route in Toronto’s Cycling Network plan for many reasons including:
• Even before the installation of the bike lanes, the street was already used by approximately 3,000 people on bicycles per day;
• Prior to the bike lanes, Bloor experienced a high number of collisions involving people on bicycles;
• Bloor is one of only a few direct routes that connects the city from end to end and provides important linkages to existing cycling facilities and to many Toronto destinations and neighbourhoods;
• There are no streetcar tracks and the corridor is served by a subway line;
• In cities across North America, research has found that extending the bikeway network is associated with a drop in crashes, fatalities and severe injuries for people on bicycles (Pucher & Buehler, 2016);
• In Toronto, cycle tracks which are adjacent to and physically separated from traffic have been shown to provide the highest safety benefit, with one ninth the risk of injury in comparison to other major streets with parked cars and no cycling infrastructure. (Teschke et al., 2012).

In 2009, TCAT published a groundbreaking study, “Bike Lanes, On-Street Parking and Business. A Study of Bloor Street in Toronto’s Annex Neighbourhood.” It found that only 10% of customers were driving to Bloor Street in the Bloor Annex downtown neighbourhood and that patrons arriving by foot and bicycle visited the most often and spent the most money per month.

In 2010, TCAT’s second study replicated the methodology in Bloor West Village (“Bike Lanes, On-Street Parking and Business Year 2 Report: A Study of Bloor Street in Toronto’s Bloor West Village”), another neighbourhood in Toronto in a location further from the downtown, and found similar results: only 20% of customers were driving to shop, and the majority of merchants believed that a bike lane would increase their business.

In 2015, because of TCAT’s previous research and expertise on this topic, the Bloor Annex BIA and Korea Town BIA (with matching funding provided by the Metcalf Foundation) commissioned TCAT, in partnership with the University of Toronto, to research the economic impact of a pilot bike lane to be installed on Bloor Street West between Shaw Street and Avenue Road. The methodology, including the survey questions, was developed in consultation with the BIAs.

In 2016, City Council approved the implementation of a pilot project to install and evaluate bike lanes on Bloor Street West. Senior staff from both Transportation Services and Economic Development and Culture subsequently reviewed TCAT’s methodology, including the survey questions, and agreed to join the existing study.

In 2017, TCAT released the “Economic Impact Study of Bike Lanes in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods”, a research report about the economic impacts of the Bloor Street pilot bike lane, as well as the effect on travel patterns and attitudes of visitors and merchants. Using a case-control and pre-post design, over 3,000 visitor and 625 merchant survey responses revealed once again that only 10% are driving to Bloor Street while 90% of customers arrived by foot, bicycle or transit.

On November 7, 2017, Toronto City Council approved the Bloor Street West cycle tracks as a permanent installation. The City used five points of evidence (including TCAT’s research) to consider relating to economic impact. Overall, they found that the street is economically healthy and growing. Beyond economic impact data, the City collected extensive before-and-after data to evaluate the performance of the pilot in order to assess the impacts and benefits of the project, including effects on the motoring environment. A few of the City's key findings were:
1) motor vehicle volume reduced by 16%;
2) motor vehicle travel times increased by only 2-4 minutes;
3) minimal impact to motor vehicle volume or travel time on parallel corridors;
4) the total number of conflicts between all road users decreased by 44; and
5) 66% of motorists reported feeling more comfortable driving next to cyclists with bike lanes, compared to 14% prior.

In 2019, TCAT’s research into the impact of Toronto’s bike lane pilot project on Bloor Street was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) in an article titled “Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Replacing On-Street Parking with Bike Lanes“.

TCAT’s thorough and balanced research provides objective, indisputable, defensible evidence disproving the myth that parking is essential to downtown small business. Equally, this research contributes to the deep body of evidence that bike lanes are an essential component of the transportation system.

Crucially, this research is just one example amongst many that illustrates the lack of any credible evidence to move forward with Bill 212 in its current form.

On a personal note, as a 35-year resident of Toronto, I am proud of the progress this city has made to make our streets safer and more welcoming for people walking and cycling. Like thousands of other Torontonians, I primarily get around on foot or by bike. Bill 212 is a serious threat not only to my way of life, but to my very life and personal safety.
 
References
Arancibia, D., Farber, S., Savan, B., Verlinden, Y., Smith Lea, N., Allen, J. & Vernich, L. (2019) Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Replacing On-Street Parking with Bike Lanes, Journal of the American Planning Association, 85:4, 463-481, DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2019.1638816. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944363.2019.1638816

FLOW Project (2016). The Role of Walking and Cycling in Reducing Congestion: A Portfolio of Measures. Brussels. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/o…

Forkes, J. & Smith Lea, N. (2010). Bike Lanes, On-Street Parking and Business: A Study of Bloor Street in Toronto’s Bloor West Village Neighbourhood. Available at: https://tcat.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/BikeLanes_Parking_Business_B…

Pucher, J. & Buehler, R. (2016). Safer Cycling Through Improved Infrastructure. American Journal of Public Health, 106(12):2089-2091.

Sztabinski, F. (2009). Bike lanes, On-Street Parking and Business. A Study of Bloor Street in Toronto’s Annex Neighbourhood. Available at: https://tcat.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Bloor-Economic-Impact-Study-…

Smith Lea, N., Verlinden, Y., Savan, B., Arancibia, D., Farber, S., Vernich, L. & Allen, J. (2017). Economic Impact Study of Bike Lanes in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods. Clean Air Partnership. Available at: https://tcat.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Bloor-Economic-Impact-Study-…

Teschke, K., Harris, A., Reynolds, C., Winters, M., Babul, S., Chipman, M., Cusimano, M., Brubacher, J., Hunte, G., Friedman, S., Monro, M., Shen, H., Vernich, L., Cripton, P. (2012). Route Infrastructure and the Risk of Injuries to Bicyclists: A case-crossover study. American Journal of Public Health, 102(12): 2336-2343.