Toronto city staff is recommending making separated bike lanes along Bloor St permanent.
A final report on the pilot launched in August 2016 has found while travel times are longer drivers they have been halved since an interim report on the project in June after adjustments to traffic lights.
Read the full report on the Bloor bike lanes by CLICKING HERE.
In June, data showed a westbound drive between Bay St and Ossington Ave during the afternoon rush took 8.5 minutes longer than it did before the bike lanes. Now city staff says that same drive is four minutes longer than it was before the pilot.
An eastbound drive in the same stretch in the morning that had been four minutes longer is now about two minutes longer.
City of Toronto
The number of people driving through the pilot stretch of Bloor has decreased by close to 3,900 a day or 16%. About 2,000 drivers were added on parallel routes like Dupont St and Harbord St.
At the same time the number of people pedalling along Bloor has exploded, making it the second-busiest cyclist corridor in Toronto.
City staff found cycling in the pilot zone has jumped 56% to an average of 5,200 cyclists every weekday. Across Bloor the increase is 49% with 25% being new riders.
City of Toronto
Data shows that since the introduction of bike lanes the number of conflicts between all road users--drivers, cyclists and pedestrians, is down 44%. Conflicts between cyclists and drivers dropped 61%. At the same time conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians have spiked by 61%. This may be because of the uptick in the number of cyclists and the fact that pedestrians have to clear a bike lane to cross the street.
But the city also says about five years of data is typically needed to make meaningful comparisons.
Previously shared data from a survey of cyclists and drivers did find both groups feeling safer and more comfortable together on Bloor with the separated bike lanes.
City of Toronto