City council votes in favour to make Bloor bike lanes permanent

City council has voted to make the bike lanes on Bloor Street permanent, a battle that’s been 40 years in the making.

Councillors expressed very mixed opinions going into Tuesday’s vote, however, despite the opposition the plan was approved.

After an exhaustive city hall debate, council voted strongly in favour of keeping the bike lanes, with a vote of 36-6.

Incredible: Toronto City Council votes 36-6 to make the #BloorBikeLanes permanent. #biketo

— Cycle Toronto (@CycleToronto) November 7, 2017

The bike lanes run along Bloor Street West between Shaw Street and Avenue Road and were designed to improve commuter safety on a heavily used travel corridor.

This incredible feat comes after a one-year pilot project that measured the bike lanes affects on cyclists, motorists, pedestrians and local businesses. During the pilot, the number of cyclists travelling along the corridor increased by 49 per cent from June 2016 to June 2017.

The city’s analysis of the bike lanes revealed that that overall traffic significantly decreased by 16 per cent and there was a 44 per cent reduction in the total number of conflicts between all road users (motorists cyclists and pedestrians).

Statistics from the report show that Bloor bike lanes are the second highest used in the city (following the Adelaide and Richmond bike paths) with an average of 5,200 cyclists a day.

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