The topic of bike lanes can be a controversial topic, especially in a busy city like Toronto. Last week, the Ontario government proposed legislation that would require municipalities to get provincial approval to create bike lanes that would eliminate one lane for vehicle traffic, sparking a firestorm of… Debate and protests.
The legislation was introduced Monday.
While advocates believe that bike lanes encourage more people to travel by bike, leading to less traffic congestion, safer commutes for cyclists, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, some motorists oppose them. blame for causing more congestion.
But research shows that bike lanes are not the cause of noticeable traffic congestion and can have many benefits.
Build it and they will come.
You might think that building more roads with more car lanes would reduce congestion, but pResearch shows this is not the caseThis is thanks to what is called induced demand. The more traffic lanes that are established, the more attractive it will be to people who would not otherwise choose to drive, resulting in more cars on the roads and increased congestion.
“So, for a short period of time, there might be a slight improvement (reduction), but within a year or two, or maybe three, the traffic is as bad or worse than before the lanes were added.” said David Bittle, head of data services at Eco-Counter, a Montreal company that collects and analyzes data on pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
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Conversely, if more bike lanes are created, people tend to feel safer and usage demand increases, says Shoshana Sacks, associate professor in the University of Toronto's Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering and Infrastructure Research Chair. Sustainable Canada.
“Once a bike lane is built, within a year or two, there is latent demand,” he said.
Statistics from Bike Share Toronto show that the number of users of its bike-sharing network has increased significantly since 2015, when 665,000 bike trips were made annually. In 2023, that reached 5.7 million trips.
In 2016, the European Commission's Civitas program published a study report on traffic congestion that analyzed several cities around the world.
For example, in New York City, the authors shared figures from the city's Department of Transportation showing that in 2010, before bike lanes were built on a major downtown thoroughfare, a car took an average of 4. 5 minutes to go from 96th Street to 77th Street After the bike lanes were installed, it only took three minutes, a 35% reduction. One of the reasons they gave for the change was the installation of a left-turn lane, which not only kept cyclists moving but also prevented cars from blocking traffic.
In Copenhagen, which introduced its first “green wave” aimed at encouraging cycling in 2007, the city stated that “the large number of bicycles, for example, facilitates access to essential basic transport, such as merchants, transport of goods and buses.” .” Pass more easily.” In fact, there is so much bike use that the city has had to add more bike lanes to reduce bike congestion.
Other case studies found no impacts on traffic, or minimal delays, from a few seconds to just over a minute.
Then there is Paris. City A saw a 54 percent increase in bicycle use from 2018 to 2019. For the first time, car use decreased by five percent between 2010 and 2018.
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“They've gone for bike lanes and they've been very popular,” Sachs said. Currently 30 percent of trips are made by bicycle in Paris.”
“People (in Canada) will say we are not Europe. In reality we are not different. “Cities around the world have been investing in doing things by car for decades, and then all the big cities realized it doesn't work.” “
In some Canadian cities, especially Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton, bicycle lanes are widely used. Montreal has a whopping 1,065 kilometers of bike lanes, Edmonton has over 800 kilometers and more are in the planning.
View | Ontario proposes bill to give it veto power over bike lanes:
Ontario has introduced a controversial bill that could give the province more authority over bike lanes. Doug Ford's government claims the legislation will help reduce gridlock, but critics say it is a political overreach.
There are other factors that contribute to automobile traffic.
So why do people tend to blame bike lanes for traffic?
“I think there's a question of correlation versus causation here,” Bittle said. “I think we're seeing bike lanes, more and more people are riding bikes, and we want to link that to the causes of traffic, and I really think that's the wrong approach.”
Instead, Bittle said, it's more about the growth of our cities.
“The population has increased in most of our urban areas,” he said. “It has skyrocketed in the last few decades.” “Statistics could (report) that in 2000, 23.6 million vehicles were registered and in 2019, 35.7 million. This represents an increase of 50 percent in 20 years.”
In Toronto, the city recently released a report on a section of Bloor West Road where it installed bike lanes and other measures to make the area more bike- and pedestrian-friendly. It compared traffic from the period before the lanes were added, from November 2022 to March 2023, with the same period a year later, and found “average increases in motor vehicle times… from 2.4 to 4.4 minutes eastbound and 1.5 to 3.6 minutes. heading west.” “To travel between Runnymede Road and Aberfoyle Crescent, depending on time of day and direction of travel.”
But Sachs said these results are misleading.
“The pre-trip travel time for these bike lanes was measured in 2022… We still have regular (Covid-19) closures,” he said. “Travel times have increased across the city, not because of bike lanes, but because we have recovered from the pandemic. We go out more and we are going to work more.”
Bike lanes have also been shown to reduce speeds, making them safer not only for cyclists but also for pedestrians. With fewer cars on the roads, emissions decrease, helping to fight climate change.
Finally, according to a 2019 report analyzing the effects of bike lanes in a different area of Bloor Street, local businesses reported gaining more customers since the lanes were installed.
“Building bike lanes means giving people another option,” Sachs said.
