I set out last Thursday at 8:05 am for my inaugural commute down the new Dundas Street East bike lanes which now run between Kingston Road and Broadview Avenue. The bike lanes were completed two weeks ago in spite of attempts of councillors Case Ootes Ward 29 Toronto-Danforth and Brian Ashton Ward 36 Scarborough Southwest to block their completion. Even the Toronto Star published an editorial condemning these bike lanes. They opposed the reduction in car lanes from 2 in each direction to 1 in each direction. They spoke of fears of grid lock, congestion traffic chaos. Most bike lane projects envisioned in the Toronto Bike Plan don't involve a reduction in lanes. This one did and was a good test of the resolve of City Council to support better routes for residents who cycle. Council sided with the cyclists and all those who will benefit from a more environmentally friendly transportation system that is envisioned in the Toronto Bike Plan and the Toronto Official Plan.

Now that the bike lanes were completed I wanted to see if there was any basis in reality for the fears of Councillor Ootes, Brian Ashton and the other councillors who voted for the unsuccessful motion to repeal the approval of the bike lanes. This being the first week after Labour day the presence of the back to school and back to work motorists would make it a fair test. I set out in search of traffic chaos.

I approached Dundas Street East from the east along Kingston road around 8:15. In the distance I could see the intersection of Dundas and Kingston road. The westbound traffic on Kingston Road moved along at a crawl heading for Eastern Avenue. In spite of this only one car ahead of me turned right onto Dundas. Apparently they had read all of the gridlock horror stories and decided to stick to the major arterial. I signaled, turned and was greeted by an empty street with a new bike lane.

As I rode this first stretch I was passed by a couple of cars. I hit my first red light at Coxwell Avenue. As I was waiting for the light to change three cars pulled up to the intersection. Earlier as I was planning my unscientific survey I wondered how I could measure the congestion. Here the idea struck me to keep track of the number of cars waiting at a red light. I told myself “Remember! Coxwell 3 cars to 1 bike.” As I rode to Greenwood I passed a couple of other cyclists on their morning commute. I hit the red at green wood and did my count again. This time only one car pulled up. Then the two other cyclists pulled up behind me. One car to three bikes. Perhaps we will need 2 bike lanes. I hit the next red at Leslie, 5 cars 2 bikes. At Pape 7 cars had lined up before the light was green. Traffic got busier as I rode closer to Broadview but there was nothing that could be described as chaos. The fact that traffic built as I got closer to downtown meant that it was likely local residents using Dundas to get downtown. The fear expressed by Councillors Ashton, Ootes and others that the motorists from Scarborough and beyond would fill up Dundas and then become frustrated and speed off down a residential side street looking for an alternate route. In my test ride the opposite appeared to be true, traffic was very light at the Eastern end of Dundas and got busier later.

Another thing I noticed was that there were more cyclists using the route than I would normally see. By the time I hit Pape I had four other cyclists riding ahead of me. Normally I would see one, maybe two.

That was the “quantitative” part of my research. For the “qualitative” I was looked at the riding experience. How were the motorists reacting to having two west bound lanes reduced to one. Would frustrated motorists, used to racing along at 70 km per hour, be tempted to pass on the right in the bike lane? Would they cut me off as they fled the feared congestion? What I noticed was that traffic was moving slower, possibly even at the 40 km posted limit. Drivers were well behaved and waited patiently at the lights. I felt quite comfortable in the bike lane, much more safe than I felt prior to the lanes being installed.

One thing that I noticed was that a different type of cyclist was using Dundas Street East. On my ride home I saw a man pulling a bike trailer with his daughter in it. I had ridden down Dundas East a week earlier on a Saturday and saw many recreational cyclists riding along. A family of four was enjoying a weekend ride. A broader range of cyclists was taking to the street. This illustrates the vision of the Bike Plan to “Create a safe, comfortable and bicycle friendly environment in Toronto, which encourages people of all ages to use bicycles for everyday transportation and enjoyment.”

There will be more scientific studies done by the City of Toronto Staff to evaluate the traffic impact of the new bike lanes. I am sure that the opponents of the bike lanes will scour these results to look for evidence to back an attempt to have the lanes removed in the future. These lanes will not cause the traffic chaos feared by some at city hall. Neither will they be a panacea for Toronto cyclists. What they are is an important thread needed in the process to making the patchwork of bike lanes, paths and routes we have now into the network that is envisioned in the Toronto Bike Plan.