The Toronto Star today talks about the dangers of cycling in Toronto due to a conspicuous lack of bike lanes and the failure of City Council to construct new lanes. A particularly telling quote from the article states that, “at the rate Toronto is moving, it will be 2070 before it meets its 2011 target to build 500 kilometres of such lanes.” The major problem that results from the absence of dedicated bike lanes is injuries. According to the article there are over 1000 bike accidents reported every year and as many as 90% of accidents are never reported.
If cities want to actually include cycling in their mass transit strategy and encourage people to take up two wheels then it has to be not only a convenient but safe option. As we talked about on this site earlier, the Paris system works because access to bikes is convenient but also because of an extensive bike lane construction program. It seems amazing that in most major cities one of the major ways to encourage greater mass transit use is through increasing safety (or the perception of safety) on buses/trains. However when it comes to encouraging cycling this simply is not the case. Due to protests from motorists and store-owners, it has become extremely difficult to get political support for bike lane construction, despite the fact that research shows that accommodating cycle traffic significantly reduces injuries. Imagine the outcry if a city councilor refused to support measures to drastically reduce the number of dangerous incidents on city transit. So why is there not the same general outcry when councilors refuse to support measures which get cars off the street and reduce injuries?
Congrats to groups like MyBikeLane Toronto and Bikes on Bloor for taking action, in one form or another, regarding bike lanes.
