Cycling Network 10 Year Plan

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 over the next 10 years.

The 10 Year Cycling Network Plan identifies approximately 525 centreline kilometres (km) of new infrastructure. This proposed new network includes:

280 centreline km of bicycle lanes or cycle tracks on fast, busy streets
55 centreline km of sidewalk-level boulevard trails along fast, busy streets
190 centreline km of cycling routes along quiet streets

View the Cycling Network 10 Year Plan map.

The Cycling Network Plan will serve as a comprehensive roadmap and workplan, outlining the City’s planned investments in cycling infrastructure over 2016 to 2025.

The plan identifies opportunities for cycling infrastructure investments in every part of Toronto. It includes recommendations for cycle tracks or bike lanes on fast, busy streets and recommendations for traffic calmed routes with cycling wayfinding on quiet streets.

The Cycling Network Plan also includes recommendations for new boulevard trails, adjacent to fast busy streets where cycling may be less comfortable in the roadway. The Plan identifies areas where tunnels or bridges may be studied to cross major barriers.

Most of the downtown Cycling Network Routes recommended in the 2001 Bike Plan have been installed. The goal of the 2016 Cycling Network Plan is to further enhance the existing network downtown by adding more new routes, and enhancing existing routes.

Most of the routes recommended in 2001 for Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke have not been installed. The goal of the 2016 Cycling Network Plan is to learn lessons from the past 10 years about what did not work in these areas and why, and re-evaluate what we can do now to make these parts of Toronto great places to ride a bike moving forward.

Cycling Impact Analysis Maps

These maps illustrate eight areas of analysis which were considered to identify new cycling projects.

Current Cycling Demand: Measuring Existing Rates of Bicycle Use in Different Parts of Toronto

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: 2011 Toronto Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) – total cycling trips.

Current Cycling Demand

Potential Demand: Measuring Where People Are Making a Lot of Short Trips (under 5km) by Car or Transit

This analysis highlights areas where there is currently a high demand for short trips not currently being made by bicycle, that could potentially be completed by bicycle in future.
Data source: 2011 TTS non-cycling and non-walking trips of 5 km or less.

Potential Cycling Demand

Coverage: Identifying Parts of the City That Currently Lack Bikeways

This analysis applies a buffer (up to 500m) around the existing network to quantify the number of new residents and/or employees that could be served, if a proposed new cycling route were added to the existing network.
Data Source: City of Toronto

Cycling Network Coverage

Barriers: Identifying Which Ones Do We Need to Cross and the Cost

This analysis will will identify opportunities to provide safer crossings where none exist, within 1 km in either direction from a barrier, including highways, railways, rivers, ravines, etc. It will also consider opportunities to improve existing crossings.

Data Source: City of Toronto

Crossing Barriers

Population and Employment Density: Identifying Where Short Trips are Viable

This analysis will map the number of residents and jobs per square kilometer to visualize the extent to which the network as a whole is serving the areas of the city where the greatest number of people could access the cycling network.
Data source: Toronto City Planning – population and employment distributions

Density

Trip Generators: Identifying Attractions, Destinations, and Opportunities for Multi-Modal Travel

This analysis will measure the number of key trip generators served by a bikeway project, including: secondary and post-secondary schools, GO and TTC stations and major attractions such as community centers, malls and museums/galleries.

Data Source: City of Toronto

Trip Generators

Safety: Identifying Where Vehicle-Bicycle Collisions have Occurred

The maps depict the locations of reported collisions involving cyclists. The intensity of the markings reflects the relative number of collisions that were reported at each location from 2009 to 2013.

Because collision frequency is often directly related to the number of trips made, the City Wide Planning Area and the Core Planning Area were analysed separately to account for the higher proportion of bicycle traffic in the Core Planning Area. In terms of collision frequencies, the lightest markings represent 1 collision on both maps, whereas the highest frequency locations for the City Wide and Core areas were 9 and 18, respectively, which represent the highest possible values for the darker markings.

Safety (Core)

Safety (City Wide)

Connectivity: Identifying Areas of High and Low Network Cohesion

This analysis will highlight 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

Connectivity

Projects on Fast Busy Streets

If a street has a lot of motor vehicles and this traffic is moving quickly, this will make most cyclists feel unsafe. For these types of streets a dedicated cycling facility such as a bicycle lane, buffered bicycle lane or cycle track can help keep cyclist and motor vehicle traffic separate.

Projects on Quiet Streets

If a street is quiet and has slow moving motor vehicle traffic, then there is no need to make a dedicated cycling facility. Traffic calming, wayfinding signage and “sharrow” pavement markings can help build bicycle boulevards which are comfortable for every type of cyclist.

Projects to Renew Existing Cycling Network

Standards for bike lanes and cycling wayfinding have evolved since the City first started building its cycling network. To ensure that the City’s cycling infrastructure is of a uniformly high quality, investments need to be made to renew routes which were installed using older designs.

Major Corridor Studies

Fast busy streets, which support high levels of commercial activity or a very high number of motor vehicle trips may require a deeper level of study, consultation and investment.

On June 9, 2016 Toronto City Council approved the Cycling Network Plan in principle. Maps of the proposed projects are posted for viewing, as Council directed that routes identified in the proposed network may be considered for future study as part of the Cycling Network Plan 2 Year Review in the Fall of 2018.