{"id":70495,"date":"2025-06-23T08:15:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T12:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495"},"modified":"2025-06-19T15:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T19:04:56","slug":"op-ed-pedaling-inaccuracies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2025\/06\/23\/op-ed-pedaling-inaccuracies\/","title":{"rendered":"OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, Etobicoke MP Yvan Baker joined a small group of residents to publicly denounce the<a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/06bb2db333ea\/bloorbikelanes\"> Bloor Street bike lanes<\/a>. In a statement shared on his website, Baker laid out what he described as a common-sense objection to the lanes, claiming they\u2019ve led to \u201ca predictably devastating impact on traffic flow,\u201d worsened emergency response times, increased emissions, and hurt small businesses. He concluded with a line meant to inoculate his argument from criticism:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI should add that I am an avid cyclist and have cycled extensively in the area for years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the kind of line that signals both authority and neutrality: \u201cTrust me, I ride too.\u201d But in practice, it\u2019s a sleight of hand. Because the facts don\u2019t support his case. And if you\u2019re going to come for the most successful complete street project Toronto has implemented in years, you better come with something more than anecdotes and armchair urbanism.<\/p>\n<h2>Let\u2019s talk about traffic<\/h2>\n<p>The idea that bike lanes are \u201cdevastating\u201d for traffic flow doesn\u2019t hold up. We\u2019ve known for years that road widening and car-priority policies induce demand\u2014the more lanes you add, the more drivers show up to fill them. The reverse is also true: when road space is reallocated, drivers adapt, shift travel times, and even change modes.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/8fb5-BWCEDashboardFinal-AODA.pdf\">Bloor Street West Complete Street Extension<\/a> has been studied closely by the City of Toronto, and their official reports show no sign of collapse, just changes consistent with design goals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?attachment_id=70496\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-70496\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-70496\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/vehicle-speeds.png\" alt=\"Chart of vehicle speeds\" width=\"627\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/vehicle-speeds.png 627w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/vehicle-speeds-300x256.png 300w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/vehicle-speeds-600x512.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to the City of Toronto\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/8fb5-BWCEDashboardFinal-AODA.pdf\">Bloor Street West Complete Street Extension<\/a> \u2013 Phase 1 Evaluation Report (2023) (Runnymede\u202f\u2192\u202fAberfoyle) shows 85th percentile vehicular speeds dropped an average of 17%\u2014from ~63\u202fkm\/h down to ~52\u202fkm\/h. In some spots, like Kingscourt\u202f\u2192\u202fKingsmill, speeds fell nearly 30% as the posted limit was reduced from 50 to 40\u202fkm\/h<a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/8fb5-BWCEDashboardFinal-AODA.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, average travel times increased modestly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Morning peak (7\u20139\u202fAM):<\/b> eastbound from ~7.5\u202fmin to ~10.3\u202fmin (+2.8\u202fmin), westbound ~7.5\u202f\u2192\u202f9.0\u202fmin (+1.5\u202fmin)<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Afternoon peak (4\u20137\u202fPM):<\/b> eastbound ~8.2\u202f\u2192\u202f12.6\u202fmin (+4.4\u202fmin), westbound ~8.0\u202f\u2192\u202f11.5\u202fmin (+3.5\u202fmin)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are not unintended side effects, they\u2019re exactly what planners aimed for: slower, safer travel at the <b>posted 40\u202fkm\/h limit<\/b>, in line with Toronto\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/services-payments\/streets-parking-transportation\/road-safety\/vision-zero\/vision-zero-plan-overview\/\">Vision Zero<\/a> commitment.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth noting that the increase in travel time can\u2019t be pinned entirely on the bike lanes themselves. Broader city-wide congestion trends, combined with local changes like reduced speed limits and other street design adjustments (e.g. turn lanes and on-street parking), all likely played a role. Without comparative data from similar corridors, it\u2019s difficult to isolate a single cause. But again, that speaks to complexity, not collapse.<\/p>\n<p>Motor vehicle volumes remained relatively stable along the corridor after the installation, according to City data. While we don\u2019t have exact totals for full corridor usage, the average segment volumes changed little. Meanwhile, cycling volumes jumped significantly. The data shows more people are riding, and fewer are speeding, without any dramatic drop in driving overall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?attachment_id=70497\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-70497\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-70497\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/volumes.png\" alt=\"Chart of traffic volumes\" width=\"627\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/volumes.png 627w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/volumes-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/volumes-600x421.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/toronto\/doug-ford-toronto-bike-lanes-1.7332276\"> leaked Ontario government document<\/a>, referenced in CBC\u2019s reporting, warned that ripping out bike infrastructure could worsen congestion in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>Even<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrillium.ca\/news\/justice\/judge-grills-province-on-whether-toronto-bike-lane-removals-are-arbitrary-10531533\"> Justice Paul Schabas<\/a>, in hearings over the Province\u2019s attempted removals of University Avenue bike lanes, grilled government lawyers on this same point: more car lanes doesn\u2019t mean less traffic. We need to stop pretending it does.<\/p>\n<h2>Emergencies? Let&#8217;s get serious<\/h2>\n<p>Baker\u2019s claim that the Bloor bike lanes \u201crisk our safety in emergencies\u201d doesn\u2019t hold water\u2014especially once we look at the data for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/community-people\/get-involved\/public-consultations\/infrastructure-projects\/bloor-street-west-complete-street-extension\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"><b>July\u2013September 2023<\/b> versus <b>October\u2013December 2023<\/b> <\/a>evaluation periods.<\/p>\n<p>According to the City\u2019s interim condition update:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Paramedics<\/b>: average response times <b>within 500\u202fm of the corridor<\/b> rose by 42 seconds\u2014from 8:29 minutes in the July\u2013Sept period to 9:11 minutes in Oct\u2013Dec 2023. That same timeframe saw a 45-second increase <strong>city-wide<\/strong>\u20149:11 \u2192 9:56 minutes.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Fire services<\/b>: 90th percentile response times actually improved locally, decreasing by 13 seconds (July\u2013Sept 2023 vs. 2022), while city-wide they worsened by 4 seconds. In the following period (Oct\u2013Dec), the corridor was 30 seconds slower, compared to a 2-second slowing city-wide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?attachment_id=70498\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-70498\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-70498\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/response-times.png\" alt=\"Chart of response times\" width=\"627\" height=\"1100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/response-times.png 627w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/response-times-171x300.png 171w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/response-times-584x1024.png 584w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/response-times-600x1053.png 600w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/response-times-536x940.png 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>These numbers show that yes, local emergency response times slowed a bit, but only <b>as much or less<\/b> than the rest of the city during the same period. And that slowdown coincided with city-wide system pressures post-pandemic, not changes to the street layout alone.<\/p>\n<p>At the October community meeting, Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop pointed directly to this data:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, I\u2019ve just pulled the latest data \u2026 your response times have been improving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That comment covered the <b>entire 2023 calendar year<\/b>\u2014data which Baker failed to acknowledge (or misrepresented).<\/p>\n<p>Far from obstructing emergency access, protected lanes often provide predictable spaces for first responders to maneuver. If we\u2019re truly worried about emergency response, the real culprit isn\u2019t separated infrastructure, it\u2019s traffic volume. The more cars we funnel onto every arterial, the more bottlenecks we create. And the more we double down on car dependency, the harder it becomes to move <i>anyone<\/i>, emergency or otherwise, efficiently through our city.<\/p>\n<h2>On emissions, the logic is backward<\/h2>\n<p>The idea that bike lanes increase emissions is like arguing that salad causes obesity.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/services-payments\/water-environment\/environmentally-friendly-city-initiatives\/transformto\/sector-based-emissions-inventory\/\"> Transportation emissions<\/a> make up nearly a quarter of Toronto\u2019s total emissions, according to the City\u2019s <i>TransformTO<\/i> sector-based inventory. These come overwhelmingly from gasoline-powered personal vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>Creating safe infrastructure for cycling and walking isn\u2019t just good policy, it\u2019s an essential strategy for meeting the city\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/services-payments\/water-environment\/environmentally-friendly-city-initiatives\/transformto\/\">climate goals<\/a>. And in fact, reducing car speeds slightly along a corridor can lead to smoother, more efficient traffic flow with fewer stops and starts, which improves fuel efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t reduce emissions by making cycling more dangerous and driving more appealing.<\/p>\n<h2>And businesses? Look at the receipts<\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps the most persistent myth about bike lanes is that they destroy local commerce. But once again, data doesn\u2019t back it up.<\/p>\n<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/tcat.ca\/resources\/bloor-street-economic-impact-studies\/\"> Centre for Active Transportation<\/a> has studied Bloor\u2019s business impacts extensively, and its economic impact reports show that retail vitality has remained strong. Many merchants experienced increased foot traffic and customer visits.<\/p>\n<p>People who cycle shop more frequently than drivers. They don\u2019t need parking spaces. And they don\u2019t get stuck in traffic before reaching your storefront.<\/p>\n<h2>Fighting the data isn\u2019t new, it\u2019s a pattern<\/h2>\n<p>As<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cycleto.ca\/deputy_mayor_morley_holds_town_hall_on_the_bloor_west_complete_street\"> Cycle Toronto reported<\/a>, tensions at the October 2024 town hall were high from the outset. The first audience member who spoke, a parent, was heckled while describing how the bike lanes had made it safer for her family to walk and ride in the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n<p>A few speakers dismissed the City\u2019s data outright. One man loudly questioned the transparency of the numbers. Barbara Gray, the City\u2019s General Manager of Transportation Services, was in attendance and responded directly to the accusation, defending the integrity of her department\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n<p>This pattern, attacking the credibility of public staff, casting suspicion on data, and using isolated anecdotes as stand-ins for policy analysis, is increasingly familiar. And it\u2019s part of a broader strategy: seed doubt, stir anger, and hope no one notices the facts.<\/p>\n<p>When opponents shout over parents sharing safety improvements, or ignore measured responses from the Deputy Fire Chief, it\u2019s hard not to wonder: Is this really about emergency response, safety, or environmental concerns? Or is it about maintaining car dominance at all costs?<\/p>\n<h2>The bigger picture: what comes next?<\/h2>\n<p>This spring, as Ontario\u2019s Minister of Infrastructure quietly moved to dismantle protected bike lanes across Toronto, Cycle Toronto and The Biking Lawyer LLP filed for legal relief. They won a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/toronto\/ontrio-bike-lane-injunction-1.7515518\"> temporary injunction<\/a> halting removals. A reminder that facts and public safety still matter in governance.<\/p>\n<p>If we want Toronto to function as a safe, accessible, equitable, and climate-ready city, we can\u2019t afford to have infrastructure built and removed based on who complains the loudest.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t need to \u201cmove the bike lanes elsewhere.\u201d We need to build on their success. We need better east-west connectivity across the city, safer routes for kids, seniors, and commuters. We need more representatives who govern with facts, not fear.<\/p>\n<p>If the best you&#8217;ve got is &#8216;I ride too,&#8217; then maybe it&#8217;s time to stop pedaling fiction.<\/p>\n<p><i>Charts created in collaboration with <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/schoolofcities.utoronto.ca\/people\/jeff-allen\/\"><i>Jeff Allen<\/i><\/a><i>. Data sourced from the City of Toronto. Photo by Lanrick Bennett.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Lanrick Bennett Jr. is Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto School of Cities<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, Etobicoke MP Yvan Baker joined a small group of residents to publicly denounce the Bloor Street bike lanes. In a statement shared on his website, Baker laid out what he described as a common-sense objection to the lanes, claiming they\u2019ve led to \u201ca predictably devastating impact on traffic flow,\u201d worsened emergency response times, increased<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2025\/06\/23\/op-ed-pedaling-inaccuracies\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8588,"featured_media":70503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bikes","category-traffic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently, Etobicoke MP Yvan Baker joined a small group of residents to publicly denounce the Bloor Street bike lanes. In a statement shared on his website, Baker laid out what he described as a common-sense objection to the lanes, claiming they\u2019ve led to \u201ca predictably devastating impact on traffic flow,\u201d worsened emergency response times, increasedContinue reading &quot;OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-23T12:15:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Bloor-West-sm.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1338\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lanrick Bennett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lanrick Bennett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495\",\"name\":\"OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Bloor-West-sm.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-23T12:15:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0559b72c8af179803a695d341e9c3dd2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Bloor-West-sm.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Bloor-West-sm.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1338,\"caption\":\"Cyclist in bike lane on Bloor Street West\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/0559b72c8af179803a695d341e9c3dd2\",\"name\":\"Lanrick Bennett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc2c0c5a878cfe2a4f60d2cd47a8e629?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc2c0c5a878cfe2a4f60d2cd47a8e629?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lanrick Bennett\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/lanrickbennett\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=70495","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"OP-ED: Pedaling inaccuracies - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Recently, Etobicoke MP Yvan Baker joined a small group of residents to publicly denounce the Bloor Street bike lanes. 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