On June 9, 2016 Toronto City Council approved the 10 Year Cycling Network Plan to connect, grow and renew infrastructure for Toronto’s cycling routes. On July 17, 2019 Toronto City Council approved the Cycling Network Plan Update, which provides a new timeframe to improve road work coordination, accountability, and implementation.
The Cycling Network Plan now consists of a longer-term overall proposed network, as well as a detailed three year rolling implementation program. A new map illustrating Toronto’s Major City-Wide Cycling Routes has been developed to identify the significant projects completed, underway, and proposed, which serve as the backbone of the cycling network.
The Cycling Network Plan (CNP) serves as a comprehensive roadmap and work plan, outlining the City’s planned investments in the near-term and intentions for the long-term. The CNP is grounded in many city policies and strategies including the Official Plan, the Road to Health, Vision Zero, TransformTO, Complete Streets, and key recommendations in the Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild’s Impacts and Opportunities report.
The CNP is an evolution of the Ten Year Cycling Network Plan, approved in principle in June 2016 and a culmination of significant research, analysis, and extensive public consultation. In 2019, the Cycling Network Plan was updated to continue to build on the work of the Ten Year Plan, including updated data sources; a revised approach to short-term programming and longer-term planning that better reflects the nature of capital coordination, development planning, and challenging feasibility assessments; and a strengthened focus on safety and equity.
The CNP’s project mandate is to:
The CNP has three main components: the Long-Term Cycling Network Vision, Major City-Wide Cycling Routes, and a three year Near-Term Implementation Program.
The Cycling Network Plan has a rolling three year near-term implementation program. This approach is more flexible and adaptable to the realities of infrastructure planning and capital coordination. Every other year, Transportation Services will review the capital implementation program and bring forward a new near-term implementation program based on priorities identified through the enhanced cycling analysis and Long-Term Cycling Network Vision, Major City-Wide Cycling Routes, capital coordination opportunities, and equitable and geographic distribution.
Transportation Services Division is working on the 2021 Cycling Network Plan Update report and related materials. The purpose of the upcoming report is to provide information on completed projects in 2019 and 2020, implementation progress for 2021, and to seek endorsement of proposed projects in 2022 and 2023, as well as the initiation of new Major City-Wide Corridor studies. The report will be brought to City Council in the Fall of 2021.
Stakeholder engagement for the 2021 Update has been focused on key city-wide stakeholder groups at the plan level, and then each individual bikeway project will have a focused public consultation and engagement program made available online on the City’s Cycling & Pedestrian Public Consultations webpage as each project advances. Councillor briefings by district were held in the month of May. Two invited external stakeholder briefings were held in early June, one for community groups and institutions, the other for partner agencies and neighbouring municipalities.
External Stakeholder Briefing Meeting Summary and Slide Deck
The first Near-Term Implementation Program was adopted for 2019-2021. The 2019-2021 Near-Term Program committed to over 120 lane km of new cycling infrastructure. Between 2019-2021, Transportation Services is anticipated to install over 61 centreline km of new bikeways and over 65 centreline km of upgrades.
Every street in Toronto should be considered for bikeways and other cycling upgrades. Toronto’s Cycling Network Plan diverges from traditional cycling route plans in North America. Route plans identify streets that should be considered for cycling, but Toronto’s Cycling Network Plan does not limit cycling to a specific set of streets. To fulfill the long term vision of the Cycling Network Plan, every street through development applications, area studies, and capital projects should consider and incorporate bikeways. Just like every street re-design considers people driving and walking, the same should be for cycling.
But not all streets are created equal. Some streets bring greater value to the cycling network, as illustrated by the four categories of suitability used in the long-term vision, which can be viewed below. The categories are based on the cycling impact analysis (current and potential cycling demand, trip generators, transit access, connectivity, coverage, barriers, safety, and equity).
Many of the routes in the long-term cycling network vision have not yet undergone a feasibility review. They are included in the network because the cycling analysis demonstrates value, but assessing every route’s technical feasibility at this stage is not possible. In some cases, immediately parallel routes score well and are shown on the map to capture all possibilities. In these cases, further analysis and consultation will confirm the preferred route(s) as they are brought forward to the near-term implementation program.
Proposed Cycling Network by Analysis Scores Map
This analysis highlights areas of the city where there are currently high volumes of cycling traffic, to visualize where the greatest number of existing cyclists could benefit from new or upgraded bikeways.
Data source: 2016 Toronto Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) – total cycling trips.
This analysis highlights areas where there is currently a high demand for short trips (under 5 km) not currently being made by bicycle that could potentially be completed by bicycle in future. This updated analysis also includes long walking trips (over 1 km)
Data source: 2016 TTS non-cycling and non-walking trips of 5 km or less, and walking trips over 1 km.
This analysis measures the number of key trip generators served by a bikeway project (such as libraries, community and recreation centres, schools, hospitals, health care centres, grocery stores, daycares).
Data Source: City of Toronto
This analysis highlights key connections to transit stations. It is based on the streets modelled to carry the highest number of commuters from their home to the closest public transit station within a cycleable catchment (2 km for TTC, 3 km for GO), specifically in Context Area 2.
Data Source: City of Toronto
This analysis highlights bikeway projects that can close gaps in the existing network, by providing cycling-friendly connections between nearby routes. The result will be more routing options for cyclists using those facilities.
Data Source: City of Toronto
This analysis applies a buffer (up to 500m in Context 2 and 250 m in Context 1) around the existing cycling network to identify areas of the city that do not have cycling routes (projects outside of the buffer areas receive a higher score).
Data Source: City of Toronto
This analysis identifies opportunities to provide safer crossings where none exist, within 1 km in either direction from a barrier, including highways, railways, rivers, ravines, etc.
Data Source: City of Toronto
This analysis ranks mid-block and intersection locations into 4 quartiles to identify which locations are experiencing a higher proportion of cycling collisions (4 being highest and 1 the lowest), based on the number of collisions that were reported at each location from 2012 to 2017. The quartile ranking analyzes cycling collisions relative to each other depending on whether the locations are in Context Area 1 or Context Area 2.
Data Source: City of Toronto
This analysis is based on the Equity Index Score previously used to identify the Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs), and key access destinations abutting potential cycling routes, as identified by the NIA Planning Tables. Projects that fall within NIAs receive a higher score.
Data Source: City of Toronto
Based on the 2016 Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS), this map illustrates the percentage of all trips taken by bicycle in each area of the city (specifically using TTS traffic zone boundaries for greater detail). TTS trips do not include trips by active modes for non-work / school purposes.
Data Source: Transportation Tomorrow Survey 2016
Based on the 2016 Toronto Employment Survey and 2016 Statistics Canada Census, this map illustrates the number of people and jobs per hectare.
Data Source: Source: Toronto Employment Survey 2016 and Statistics Canada Census 2016
Neighbourhood Equity Index Scores (out of 100) are those identified by City of Toronto Social Development, Finance & Administration Division for the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020. The scores are based on five domains: economic opportunities, social development, participation in decision-making, physical surroundings, and healthy lives. The greater the opportunities and services, the higher the score.
Data Source: Source: City of Toronto
“Cycling Service” is the proportion of street kilometres in the neighbourhood (excluding highways) that have cycling routes (cycle tracks, bike lanes, trails, quiet street sharrows), represented as a percentage (out of 100). The more cycling routes that exist, the higher the score.
Data Source: Source: City of Toronto
Cycling Service by Neighbourhood
This map illustrates the cycling service by neighbourhood as described above, with the addition of the equity scores overlayed in the form of density dots. The larger the dot, the greater the inequity.
Data Source: Source: City of Toronto
Cycling Service and Equity Scores
This map illustrates the combined scores of cycling service and the equity index, which are out of 200 when merged. The lowest scoring neighbourhoods represent those in greatest need of investment.
Data Source: Source: City of Toronto
There are a number of significant corridors that cross Toronto from east to west and north to south, where high order cycling infrastructure has been installed, or is being designed, and planned.
As part of the Update to the Cycling Network Plan, the original Major Corridor Studies were reviewed and prioritized based on the analysis results, as well as on previous Council commitments, recently completed Avenue Studies, and planned capital works.
2019 Major City-Wide Cycling Routes Map
The type of study needed for each corridor will take different forms for different streets depending on the corridor’s complexity of current and future uses, and on previous or concurrent initiatives. Some routes may include analysis of parallel streets to confirm the most feasible alignment of the route, while others may go directly into the detailed impacts, design, and engagement with stakeholders to work through specific issues. All studies will be undertaken with a Complete Streets and Vision Zero approach.
Attachment 1 – Map of Proposed Cycling Network by Analysis Scores
Attachment 2 – Map of Major City-Wide Cycling Routes
Attachment 3 – Map and Table of Cycling Infrastructure Completed 2016 – 2018
Attachment 4 – Maps of Near-Term Implementation Program 2019 – 2021
Attachment 5 – Stakeholder Engagement Summary
Attachment 6 – Analysis Methodology and Enhancements
Attachment 7 – Maps of Cycling Analysis Results by Category
Attachment 8 – Project Selection Process Summary
Attachment 9 – Routes Removed from Proposed Network
Attachment 10 – Project-specific Council Request Responses
The 2016 Ten Year Cycling Network Implementation Plan details the public consultation, research process, analyses and coordination involved in the development of the 10 Year Cycling Network Plan, which has been incorporated into the Cycling Network Plan Update.
Table of Contents & Sections 1-4
Section 5 – Mapping the Potential to Impact Cycling in Toronto
7. Cycling Projects Priority Analysis
8. Ten year Cycling Network Implementation Plan Capital Scenarios
9. Cycling Network “Renew” Program
Section 10 – Recommended Ten Year Cycling Network Implementation Plan
11. Implementation
12. Setting and Tracking Objectives
13. Conclusions
Appendix A – Ten Year Cycling Network Implementation Plan Maps (City-Wide, District and Ward)
B. Cycling Impact Analysis
C. Unit Costs of Construction
D. Project Priority Ratings
Appendix E – Cycling Network Outcomes for Various Implementation Plan Scenarios
F. Studies Led by Others
View City of Toronto previous ward maps (44-Ward Model) of the original Ten Year Cycling Network Plan.
Prior to the 10 Year Cycling Network Plan the City created the 2001 Bike Plan. This plan set out integrated principles, objectives and recommendations regarding safety, education and promotional programs as well as cycling related infrastructure, including a comprehensive bikeway network.
While we aim to provide fully accessible content, there is no text alternative available for some of the content on this site. If you require alternate formats or need assistance understanding our maps, drawings, or any other content, please contact the Cycling Unit at cycling@toronto.ca.