Want safer cycling? Build cycling infrastructure

Toronto Bike Month wraps up this week. But, for cyclists in Toronto, there’s not a whole lot to celebrate.

The administration at city hall remains firmly anti-bike. In 2011, Toronto bucked a global trend toward more cycling infrastructure in cities and actually saw a reduction in the number of bike lanes on its streets. Later this year, city crews will erase the bike lanes on Jarvis Street, despite studies showing that they’re well-used and have had a negligible impact on car traffic.

For his part, Mayor Rob Ford has never been a fan of cyclists. Even as his public works department moves forward on small improvements to the city’s network of bike paths, Ford remains detached from the issue. He once famously pointed the finger at riders for their own injuries. “Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks, not for people on bikes,” he said. “My heart bleeds for them when I hear someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.”

That’s a too-pervasive sentiment. Last week, the Ontario’s chief coroner released a report on cycling deaths in Ontario. From 2006 to 2010, 129 cyclists were killed on our roads. The coroner made 14 recommendations to improve bike safety — including improved infrastructure — but only one got much attention: The idea of mandatory helmet laws.

Helmets, it should be noted, only improve safety after a cyclist has been knocked off their bike.

Still, helmets are an important part of safe cycling. So is obeying the rules of the road, something many Toronto cyclists still fail to do. Governments should take reasonable steps to encourage helmet use and enforce existing laws. But we can’t have a serious conversation about safety without first talking about our city’s critical shortage of cycling infrastructure.

Just as safe driving depends on things like stop signs, functioning traffic signals and good signage, safe cycling starts with well-marked bike lanes and pathways.

This isn’t a radical notion. All around the world, cities are embracing cycling infrastructure. In New York City, more than 400 kilometres of bike lanes were added over four years. At the same time, they’ve seen consistent double-digit growth in the number of cycling commuters year-over-year.

It’s the same story in many other big cities.

The investment is sound. When someone decides to ride a bike to work, they open up room on our congested road system or busy transit network. And, of course, cyclists produce no pollution, add little wear to our roads and are also improving their personal health as they ride.

But our city seems reluctant to embrace cycling as part of the solution in the war on gridlock. As other cities move forward, Toronto pedals backwards.