Turns Out Cars Aren’t That Important, Actually

This week was our final field trip, and I am very sad to see them go. The experiential component of this course has been so engaging and I have loved getting to hear first-hand what the process of changing policy from outside of government is like.

We spent the morning walking (not riding since several classmates were nervous) along the Bloor bike lane. This was a particularly interesting week for me as I live just off of Bloor, and the route we took is very familiar to me. As we walked along stretch between St. George and Shaw, I began to think about it in news ways. I noted how the bike lanes significantly reduced the parking for cars in front of shops. This was a concern of businesses that were initially opposed to the bike lanes. I was curious about this since I live in the neighbourhood and don’t own a car. I walk for most errands and see many others doing the same, grocery carts are a common sight. I wondered how relevant car traffic actually was to Bloor street businesses.

It turns out they are not very relevant at all. Research done by Bike Lanes on Bloor found that most people arrived in the area by foot, bike, or transit. Anecdotally, it is much easier to notice shops when you are going at a slower pace and certainly easier to pop into a few different shops on the way to your destination if you aren’t in a car. To top it all off Mike Layton mentioned that being able to pull point of sale data to compare sales before and after the implementation of bike lanes found that the businesses did better with the bike lanes, and as a persuasive piece of evidence.

This week reaffirmed for me just how important data can be in shifting the position of stakeholders on a policy issue. Entrenched social ideas, like the privileging of cars leads to assumptions that don’t always reflect what is actually happening or what a community needs. Collecting and effectively communicating data on an issue can be a powerful driver of change.