A More Ambitious Vision: 2025-2027 Cycling Network Plan 150km
Torontonians want a more vibrant, friendlier public realm. We want to ease traffic congestion and give people more transportation options. We want to achieve net zero for a greener, healthier future. We want to connect communities from downtown to the suburbs. We want to eliminate road violence and make VisionZero a reality. And we know bikes can do that.
But in order to accomplish this, we need an even more ambitious vision for the 2025-2027 Cycling Network Plan (CNP) and build 150 km of new bikeways over the next 3 years.
We are calling on Mayor Chow and City Council to accelerate building a safe, connected cycling network city-wide:
1) Accelerate completing the remaining Major-City Wide Cycling Routes by 2030
We are calling for the 2025-2027 CNP to target at least 150 km total and average over 50 km of new bikeways a year to complete the 500 km of the Major City Wide Cycling Routes by 2030.
(Map of Major City-Wide Cycling Routes)
Currently, the City has completed about 44% or 220 km of those routes. The current timeline to complete the remaining 280 km is by 2041 or ~16 km a year. Simply put, this is woefully inadequate. Without safe, protected cycling infrastructure to enable more people to choose to ride a bike in Etobicoke, York, North York, and Scarborough, we will fail to meet TransformTO’s transportation targets.
2) Build connections and close gaps in our cycling existing network
We want to ensure the 2025-2027 CNP prioritizes increasing the number of connections and closing gaps to ensure our growing network of all ages and abilities cycling infrastructure is as usable to as many people as possible. Research increasingly shows that a crucial determinant of cycling infrastructure success is network connectivity and to what extent different bikeways intersect with each other.
3) Construct Complete Streets by Default
For nearly a decade, Cycle Toronto has been advocating for Complete Streets by default when roads are up for construction or rehabilitation. In the 2021 Cycling Network Plan Update, Transportation staff noted that while the city completes over 100 km of road rehabilitation each year, they only have resources and capacity to deliver approximately 10 km of bundled bikeway projects per year. This was flagged as a serious impediment: “Additional resources [staff and budget] will be necessary to close this gap and sustain a high delivery rate of bikeways beyond the 2022-2024 Near-Term Implementation Program.” Two years later, unfortunately, this large gap remains.
(An illustration of a complete street in the Toronto context. Image: City of Toronto)
Back in 2014, then candidate Olivia Chow proposed building 50 km of bikeways a year over four years. That’s the scale of vision and leadership urgently needed today. Other major cities like Montréal under Mayor Valérie Plante and Paris under Mayor Anne Hidalgo are making headlines and transforming communities by creating friendlier public realms that embrace active transportation. Toronto cannot be left behind. With a dedicated staff team and strong political direction, Toronto has the potential to match other major cities that are accelerating their cycling network expansions. New York City, for example, built over 50 km of new protected bikeways in 2023. If New York City can do it, why not Toronto?
