A case for bike lanes

A bicycle-friendly city is environment-friendly, too
by Albert Koehl
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First, more bike lanes, which require a mere 150 centimetres on the side of a road, would produce more bike riders. A 1998 Environics poll found that 70 per cent of Canadians would bike to work for distances that took less than 30 minutes if they had a dedicated bike lane. And where bike lanes have been created in Toronto, the number of cyclists increased by up to 42 per cent, presumably because of the huge untapped potential of Toronto's 950,000 adults who ride a bike.

Second, Canada is a big country but people don't regularly commute from Tuktoyaktuk to Toronto. In fact, Canadian motorists make an average of 2,000 trips each year that are less than three kilometres, trips that can easily be made by bike. Schools, stores and churches are often within manageable distances, even in the suburbs. More cycling would certainly reduce the $2.1 billion in health-care costs the Canadian Medical Association says is associated with inactive lifestyles. Some distances are indeed too long for cycling, but combining biking with transit

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