ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY of Bike Lanes in ’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods: Summary Report Project Team: Project Lead: Nancy Smith Lea, Toronto Centre for Active Transportation Research Lead/Data Collection Lead (Pre-test): Dr. Beth Savan, Principal Investigator, Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank, School of the Environment, Data Collection Lead (Post-tests): Lee Vernich, Director, Office of Research, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto Data Analysis Lead: Dr. Steven Farber, Department of Human Geography, University of Toronto Scarborough Writer/Research Assistant: Yvonne Verlinden, Toronto Centre for Active Transportation Study Design: Daniel Arancibia, Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank, School of the Environment, University of Toronto Research Assistant: Jeff Allen, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto

Survey Teams: Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank, School of the Environment, University of Toronto (Pre-test) Office of Research, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto (Post-tests)

Report Design: Clara Romero

Icon Credits: freepik.com + flaticon.com

Cover Photo: Anthony Galloro

Funding Partners: City of Toronto Metcalf Foundation Bloor Annex BIA Korea Town BIA

Please cite as: Smith Lea, N., Verlinden, Y., Savan, B., Arancibia, D., Farber, S., Vernich, L. & Allen, J. Economic Impact Study of Bike Lanes in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods: Summary Report. Toronto: Clean Air Partnership, 2017. Updated September 2019. Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 4

METHODOLOGY 4

CUSTOMER COUNTS 6

SPENDING 7

VISIT FREQUENCY 8

VACANCY RATES 8

PARKING 8

TRAVEL PATTERNS 10

PERCEPTIONS OF SAFETY 11

BIKE LANE FEEDBACK 12

CONCLUSION 13

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS 14 4 | Toronto Centre for Active Transportation

INTRODUCTION • Random and representative samples: In 2016, the City of Toronto installed a bike lane as a pilot project along a 2.4 km stretch of , For the visitor surveys, every third person a busy downtown commercial street and east-west walking along the street was approached and thoroughfare. One traffic lane and some on-street asked if they would like to participate. For the parking were removed. merchant surveys, every street level business The Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) was approached. If the owner or manager was commissioned by the City of Toronto, the was unavailable, up to three repeat visits were Metcalf Foundation, the Bloor Annex BIA and Korea made and contact information was left for Town BIA to study the economic impacts of the bike them to follow up. lane, as well as its effect on the travel patterns and • A control site: attitudes of merchants and visitors. See Figure 2 for Data was also collected on , a a detailed timeline of the study. comparable shopping street with no bike lane.

• Third party data collection and analysis: METHODOLOGY To ensure impartial data collection and analysis, Four tools were used to collect data: visitor surveys, TCAT partnered with researchers from the merchant surveys, bicycle counts and vacancy University of Toronto. Dr. Beth Savan, Inaugural scans (see Figure 1). The study design incorporated Sustainability Director at the University of Toronto the following elements to ensure the most reliable and past Research Director at the School of the and objective information possible: Environment, was involved in the study design and led the 2015 pre-test data collection, • Vetted Study Protocol: supervising an 8-member team who conducted In 2015, before data collection began and the surveys, bike counts and translation. Lee before the installation of the bike lane, the Vernich, Director of the Office of Research in research team worked together with the initial the School of Public Health, led and supervised funding partners (the Korea Town BIA, the Bloor a 15-member team for the 2016 and 2017 Annex BIA, and the Metcalf Foundation) to post-test data collection. Dr. Steven Farber, a develop an evidence-based methodology. quantitative transportation geographer, led the The City of Toronto approved the design when it data analysis and supervised all statistical tests. joined as a study partner in 2016. • Multiple data sources: • Before and after data: Multiple data sources were used to estimate Data was collected once before the bike lane’s economic impact, including estimated installation (fall 2015) and twice after (fall 2016, customer counts from the merchant surveys, spring 2017). estimated spending and visit frequency from • Non-leading questions: the visitor surveys, and business vacancy counts Surveys were introduced without mentioning the from a street level scan. bike lane, and the economic impact questions were asked before questions about travel Visitor Surveys 3,005 patterns or the bike lane. Merchant Surveys 525

Bicycle Counts 15

Vacancy Counts 2

Figure 1. Summary of data collected Economic Impact Study in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods | 5 2015 jun The Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank presents to the Bloor Annex BIA

jul TCAT, in partnership with the Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank, The Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank School of the Environment at the University of Toronto, submit a proposal to the Korea Town BIA, Bloor Annex BIA and Metcalf aug presents to the Korea Town BIA Foundation to measure the economic impacts and travel shifts from a pilot bike lane on Bloor Street. Study proposal submitted sep Korea Town BIA and the Metcalf Foundation approve First funding approved funding.

oct Second funding approved Bloor Annex BIA approves funding. Agreement on methodology

nov Korea Town BIA, Bloor Annex BIA and TCAT agree on methodology: FIRST • Data would be collected before and after the

dec ROUND First round of data is collected bike lane’s installation OF (merchant surveys, visitor surveys • Data would also be gathered from a control 2016 DATA and bicycle counts). Undertaken site

jan by the Toronto Cycling Think & Do • Merchant and visitor survey questions agreed Tank, School of the Environment upon at the Unversity of Toronto. • Economic impact would be measured

feb through customer counts, visit frequency and reported spending 8 months before mar apr may Council approves Bloor bike lane Initial meetings with the City of Toronto regarding pilot project economic evaluation of the bike lane pilot project jun TCAT meets with the City FIRST BUSINESS jul The City of Toronto becomes a study partner and the study design is reviewed by Transportation VACANCY The City becomes a partner

aug Services, the Economic Development Office and COUNTS the BIA Office. The City also funds additional data Bike lanes officially open collection: 3 months after • Business vacancy data would be collected sep before and after the bike lane’s installation • Survey and bike count data would be collected a second time after the bike lane’s oct installation, to increase robustness. nov SECOND ROUND

dec OF DATA 2017 jan

P

8 months after h o t o : M feb a r t i n R e i s Undertaken by the

mar Office of Research, Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the P University of Toronto h o apr t o : Y e n v o n n e V e r l i n d

P h o may t o THIRD : M a ROUND r t i n R OF DATA e i s

jun Undertaken by Office of Research, Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto SECOND jul BUSINESS Undertaken by the Department of

VACANCY aug Data analyzed Human Geography at the University of COUNTS Toronto, Scarborough sep oct Results released Figure 2. Timeline of the Study 6 | Toronto Centre for Active Transportation

CUSTOMER COUNTS

The first data source used to estimate economic Businesses Serving 100 Customers or More impact was customer counts from the merchant 81% surveys. On Bloor Street in 2015, approximately half 62% (46%) of merchants reported seeing 100 or more 58% 46% customers on a Saturday; by 2017, this number had grown to 62% (see Figure 3). Customer counts on DANFORTH 25% 21% Danforth Avenue also increased, and the growth BLOOR BLOOR BLOOR

appears to be stronger than on Bloor Street. DAN FORTH DAN FORTH On Danforth in 2015, only one quarter (25%) of 2015 2016 2017 merchants reported 100 customers or more on a (Bloor n=457)(Danforth n=73) Saturday; by 2017, 81% of merchants reported they Figure 3. Changes in Businesses Serving 100 Customers or had reached or surpassed this threshold. Because More on a Saturday Question: On average, about how many customers of the smaller sample size on Danforth Avenue, do you serve per day? 1) Weekday 2) Saturday it is possible that the significant increase is not representative of changes on the street overall, or had already begun to occur in 2016 but was not captured, and became more readily apparent in 2017. ANNEX

<25 25-49 50-99 100-200 200 customers customers customers customers and up fewer than 25 customers 6% 13% 16% 27% 39% 25-49 customers 2015 50-99 customers 1% 100-200 customers 200 customers and up 5% 17% 40% 37% 2016

5% 9% 14% 22% 50% 2017 (n=209) KOREA TOWN DANFORTH

<25 25-49 50-99 100-200 200 customers <25 25-49 50-99 100-200 200 customers customers customers customers customers and up customers customers customers customers and up 32% 23% 13% 13% 19% 36% 21% 18% 11% 14% 2015 2015

27% 9% 25% 24% 15% 26% 42% 11% 21% 2016 2016

20% 22% 14% 14% 30% 5 5 10% 10% 71% 2017 2017 (n=202) (n=68)

Figure 4. Changes in Saturday Customer Counts, Bloor Annex, Korea Town and Danforth Question: On average, about how many customers do you serve per day? 1) Weekday 2) Saturday Economic Impact Study in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods | 7

SPENDING Looking more closely at the change in businesses The second data source used to estimate reporting the most customers on a Saturday, there economic impact was monthly spending from the was substantial growth between 2015 and 2017 in visitor surveys. In 2015, approximately half (44%) of the number of merchants reporting 200 customers visitors reported spending at least $100, and so this or more in all locations (see Figure 4), but most amount was used as a threshold of comparison for dramatically on Danforth (from 39% to 50% in Bloor the data analysis. Reported spending increased on Annex, from 19% to 30% in Korea Town, and from Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue at a similar rate 14% to 71% on the Danforth). (see Figure 5). Spending was higher on Danforth As the number of customers grew overall between Avenue than on Bloor Street, both before and after 2015 and 2017, there was a corresponding the bike lane’s installation. Increases in spending decrease in businesses reporting fewer than 25 were found across all transportation choices except customers on a Saturday, particularly on Danforth transit (see Figure 6). Both before and after the bike (from 6% to 5% in Bloor Annex, from 32% to 20% in lane’s installation, customers who arrive by foot or Korea Town, and from 36% to 5% on Danforth). on bike reported the highest levels of spending on Bloor Street. On Danforth Avenue, where no bike Overall, merchants in Bloor Annex reported lane was installed, the top spenders remain people more customers than Korea Town, likely due to arriving on foot. Spending by people on bikes their different commercial compositions. Nearly increased only slightly on the Danforth and was half (49%) of the businesses in Bloor Annex are surpassed by people in cars. restaurants, bars and cafés, while in Korea Town, one third (35%) are small service providers (Toronto On both streets, spending was found to increase Employment Survey, 2015). with proximity and visit frequency. Using a regression model, the research team determined that people Visitors Spending $100 or More who are local (they live or work in the area) were 2.6 times more likely than those who live or work further away to spend at least $100 per month, Danforth 70% 57% 53% and for each additional day per month visited, the 44% Bloor likelihood of spending $100 or more increased by 0% (Bloor n=2,419) (Danforth n=585) 7.3%. Figure 5. Changes in the percentage of visitors spending $100 or more per month on Bloor and Danforth

BLOOR DANFORTH 82% 68% 63% 67% 63% 58% 62% 53% 51% 48 48% 44% 42% 34% 35% 32%

2015 (n=842) 2016+17 (n=1577) 2015 (n=173) 2016+17 (n=412)

Figure 6. Changes in the Percentage of Visitors Spending $100 or More, by Travel Choice on Bloor and Danforth Questions: How did you get here today? & About how much money do you spend in [, Korea Town, the Danforth] in a typical month? 8 | Toronto Centre for Active Transportation

VISIT FREQUENCY VACANCY RATES

The third data source used to estimate economic The fourth and final data source used to estimate impact was visit frequency from the visitor surveys. economic impact was changes in vacancies from Visitors reported coming to Bloor Street three days a street level scan. Vacancy rates held nearly more per month after the bike lane was installed, steady at just over 6% on Bloor Street within the and increases in frequency occurred across all Bloor Annex and Korea Town BIAs (see Figure 8). transportation choices. On Danforth, analysis Pre Post showed that visit frequency was unchanged, after July July the influences of other differences in the samples 2016 2017 (age, gender, proximity, etc.) were removed. Bloor, entire length of bicycle lane 7.0% 7.2% People who arrived on foot or on bike visited Bloor (Avenue Rd to Shaw St) (n=345) (24) (25) Street the most often, at an average of 19.7 and Bloor in Korea Town and Bloor 6.5% 6.1% 21.3 days per month respectively after the bike Annex (n=247) (16) (15) lane was installed (see Figure 7). Using a regression Danforth (Broadview to Chester 5.2% 3.4% analysis, the research team found that people who (n=116) (6) (4) drove or took transit visited nearly four days per month less than those who walked. These findings Figure 8. Changes in Vacancy Rates, Bloor and Danforth are closely related to proximity, as the analysis also found that those who live or work locally visited 13 PARKING days per month more than those who live or work further away, and people who biked or walked Parking difficulty increased on both streets, growing made up the highest percent of local respondents. by four times on Bloor Street (from 8% to 33% of visitors who drove) and nearly doubling on Danforth The research team also investigated customers Avenue (from 14% to 25% of visitors who drove), only (i.e. those survey respondents who reported though this street did not have any of its on-street that the purpose of their trip that day included parking removed (see Figure 10). shopping, visiting a restaurant, café or bar, or receiving a service), and found that they visited The research team further investigated the changes with a frequency similar to visitors overall. in parking difficulty experienced by a subset of customers only. Those who came to Bloor Street by BLOOR DANFORTH Monthly Visit Frequency Monthly Visit Frequency

9 9.6 10.1 9.4 17.7 days 19.1 21.2 20 days days days days days days days per per per per per per per per 2015 month month month month 2015 month month month month (n=842) (n=173)

19.7 14.9 11.5 21.3 18.7 11.9 11.9 22.5 days days days days days days days days per per per per per per per per month month month month month month month month 2016+17 (n=1577) 2016+17 (n=412)

Figure 7. Changes in Average Days Visited Per Month on Bloor and Danforth, by Travel Choice Questions: In a typical month, how many days do you visit this area of [Bloor Street, Danforth Avenue]? Economic Impact Study in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods | 9

Customer Parking Difficulty BLOOR car to shop, visit a food establishment or receive 90%110% a service reported a smaller increase in parking easy! difficulty compared with all visitors who drove (from 10% to 19%, see Figure 9). On Danforth, the 2015 difficult customer subset also had slightly more difficulty (n=41) (before installation of bike lanes) parking in the post-test (from 14% to 25%, subset not shown). 81% 19% Merchants also found it more difficult to find parking easy! difficult (see Figure 11). On both streets, however, the majority of visitors and merchants who drove still 2016+17 (after installation of bike lanes) (n=81) found parking easily. It is important to note that on Figure 9. Changes in Difficulty of Finding Car Parking on Bloor both streets, a small percentage of visitors arrive by Street, Customer Subset (shopping, food or service trips only) Questions: How did you get here today? & If you car. When looking at visitors overall, the percentage parked, what was your level of ease in finding parking today? What is the purpose of your trip to [the Annex, who needed to find car parking and experienced Korea Town]? difficulty is small: 3% of all visitors on Bloor and 4% of all visitors on Danforth. Visitor Parking Difficulty BLOOR Visitor Parking Difficulty 92% 8% DANFORTH easy! 86% 14% easy! 2015 difficult 2015 (n=57) (before installation of bike lanes) difficult (n=28)

67% 33% easy! difficult 75% 25% easy! difficult 2016+17

(after installation of bike lanes) (n=135) 2016+17 (n=42) Figure 10. Changes in Visitors' Difficulty of Finding Car Parking on Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue (includes all trip purposes) Questions: How did you get here today? & If you parked, what was your level of ease in finding parking today?

Merchant Parking Difficulty Merchant Parking Difficulty BLOOR DANFORTH easy! 84% 16% 100% easy! 2015 2015 difficult (before installation of bike lanes) (n=60) (n=4)

59% 41% 80% 20% easy! difficult easy! difficult 2016+17 2016+17 (after installation of bike lanes) (n=140) (n=15)

Figure 11. Changes in Merchants' Difficulty of Finding Car Parking on Bloor Street and Danforth Ave Questions: How did you get to work today? & If you parked, what was your level of ease in finding parking today? 10 | Toronto Centre for Active Transportation

TRAVEL PATTERNS

The percentage of visitors cycling to Bloor Street though car use grew slightly (from 8% to 10%). more than doubled (from 7% to 18%), a substantially Among the subset of customers specifically (those higher increase than on Danforth Avenue (see visitors who came to Bloor Street to shop, visit a Figure 12 and 13). Conversely, transit use declined. food establishment or receive a service), cycling Almost half of visitors to Bloor Street walk, and nearly tripled (from 7% to 20%); otherwise customers driving is now the least popular choice (10%), even traveled in very similar ways as visitors overall (see Visitor Travel Choices Merchant Travel Choices BLOOR BLOOR (n=163) (n=842)

7% 8% 35% 50% 6% 42% 34% 18% 2015 2015

(before installation of bike lanes) (before installation of bike lanes)

(n=136) (n=1577)

18% 10% 24% 48% 6% 49% 29% 15% 2016+17 2016+17 (after installation of bike lanes) (after installation of bike lanes)

Figure 12. Changes in Visitor Travel Choices on Bloor Figure 14. Changes in Merchant Travel Choices on Bloor (includes all trip purposes) Question: How did you get to work today? Question: How did you get here today? Visitor Travel Choices DANFORTH Figure 15). The research team further investigated

(n=173) the travel choices of shoppers alone, since the need to carry items purchased could mean they 8% 17% 24% 51% drive more. The results showed, however, that shoppers drive at a similar rate as other visitors and

2015 in fact have a higher likelihood of cycling.

Merchants on Bloor Street preferred to drive (49%) or take transit (29%). Few chose to walk (15%) or

(n=412) cycle (6%). Merchants’ travel patterns changed in the same direction as visitors’, except for cycling, 13% 19% 20% transit 48% which did not increase (see Figure 14).

Merchants were also asked to estimate the travel 2016+17 choices of their customers. The majority believed Figure 13. Changes in Visitor Travel Choices on Danforth (includes all trip purposes) Question: How did you get here today? Economic Impact Study in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods | 11 Over half of merchants Fewer than 10% believe that 25% or of visitors who came to more of their customers shop, visit a restaurant drive to Bloor Street. or receive a service reported arriving by car.

PERCEPTIONS OF SAFETY

that at least 25% of their customers are driving to After the installation of the bike lane on Bloor, the Bloor Street. However, in the visitor surveys, fewer proportion of visitors who perceived Bloor Street than 10% of visitors who came to shop, visit a as safe for cycling more than tripled (from 17% to restaurant or receive a service reported arriving by 61%) and doubled among merchants (from 13% car. to 27%, see Figure 16). The percentage of women Customer Travel Choices who reported they now feel safe cycling on Bloor BLOOR increased significantly more than men, from 12% to (n=720) 58%. Perceptions of cycling safety decreased on Danforth Avenue, although this street underwent no 7% 9% 36% 48% change in configuration.

Our visitor survey results correspond closely to the 2015 City of Toronto public perception survey results, (before installation of bike lanes) released in June 2017. With feedback from over 14,000 members of the public, 58% strongly agreed that Bloor Street now provides a safer and more (n=1488) comfortable environment for cyclists. The City’s 20% 9% 23% 48% survey also found that the driving experience on Bloor Street is more comfortable after the installation of the bike lane and the walking

2016+17 experience is about the same or better (City of (after installation of bike lanes) Toronto, 2017). The City has also undertaken an Figure 15. Changes in Travel Choices on Bloor, Customer analysis of near-misses to further evaluate safety. Subset (shopping, food or service trips only) Questions: How did you get here today? & What is the purpose of your trip to [the Annex, Korea Town]?

77% 61% visitors overall cycling BLOOR 61% DANFORTH driving transit 52% 56% walking 22% business owner 46% visitors 17% overall visitors overall 10% 30% visitors 25% overall 22% 23% 21% 20% 20% 15% 13% 14% 9% 9% 10% 6% 6% business owner business owner business owner business owner 2015 (n=1005) 2016+17 (n=1867) 2015 (n=201) 2016+17 (n=457) Figure 16. Changes in Perceptions of Cycling as Safe on Bloor and Danforth Questions: How did you get here today? & With the current street configuration, how safe do you feel (or would you feel) riding a bicycle on [Bloor St, Danforth]? I have gotten comments from lots of different people that this is confusing. I think we might need to show all the categories. I've roughed something up here. In a separate graphic above it, we could have icons with the customer travel choice % from figure 21 (bike: 20%, drive: 9%, transit: 23%, walking: 48%). The colours are meant to represent whether the estimates were below, the same or above, but it's probably better to stick with the colour scheme you've established (green for bicycles, grey for driving, etc). Maybe you could do a dotted line to connect the visitor travel icon with the estimate that was correct.

12 | Toronto Centre for Active Transportation

BIKE LANE FEEDBACK

The majority of visitors (82%) and merchants most common feedback related to the bike lane’s (88%) provided feedback in response to an configuration and the safety of the street. Traffic open-ended question soliciting thoughts or and parking concerns were raised less often. The comments about the bike lane. The feedback research team also looked at comments from a was categorized according to the most common subset of customers specifically (those reporting themes that emerged: safety (concerns and a trip for the purpose of shopping, visiting a food benefits), business (concerns, benefits and establishment, or receiving a service), and found unaffected), traffic/congestion, parking (for their comments to be similar to those of visitors self and others), deliveries, and bike lane overall. configuration. The remaining feedback was Merchants raised more concerns than visitors, the categorized as positive non-specific, negative most common being over impacts to their own non-specific, other/unsure. Some respondents’ business or to businesses on the street in general. feedback was multi-layered and covered more Retailers in particular voiced the most concerns than one category. In these cases, the feedback in this category. Many merchants, however, was counted more than once. were also concerned about safety and the bike While visitor comments were generally positive, lane’s configuration, and parking and traffic were many also raised concerns or gave suggestions important issues for them as well. of how the bike lanes could be improved. The

Some visitors said: Some merchants said:

"Love them. Keep the bike lanes." "Not a good idea. Congestion is worse. Pedestrians are being struck." "As a cyclist and pedestrian, love the bike lanes. But as a driver, it’s hard to drive on Bloor Street and make turns. You can’t "Average sales down 5-8% since see the cyclists when turning." the bike lanes were installed. That’s a significant drop and sales were up the year previously."

“The bike lanes need divisions between the “Ever since there was a bike street and the lane.” lane, customers complain about finding parking on the streets, which is cheaper than the lots or underground parking.” Economic Impact Study in Toronto’s Bloor Annex and Korea Town Neighbourhoods | 13

Conclusion

This study set out to investigate the economic Among customers to Bloor Street, cycling almost impacts – positive, negative or neutral – of installing tripled as a travel choice (from 7% to 20%). Walking a bike lane on Bloor Street, as compared to a remained the most popular travel choice (48%) and similar street with no bike lane (Danforth Avenue), driving is now the least (10%). Merchants, on the and to understand the roles played by shifts in other hand, preferred to drive (49%) and there was travel patterns and attitudes of both visitors and no increase in cycling, which remained the least merchants. preferred travel choice (6%).

Four different sources of data were used to estimate After the installation of the bike lane, the proportion economic impact before and twice after the of visitors who perceived Bloor Street as safe for installation of the bike lane (after three months, and cycling more than tripled (from 17% to 61%) and again after eight months): 1) estimated customer doubled among merchants (from 13% to 27%). counts from merchant surveys, 2) estimated However, safety remained a paramount concern spending from visitor surveys, 3) visit frequency from of both visitors and merchants, and many made visitor surveys, and 4) business vacancy counts from suggestions for how to improve the bike lane’s a street level scan. Overall, these four indicators configuration. point to increased economic activity on Bloor There is a discrepancy between the number of Street. Most merchants reported a higher number specific concerns raised among merchants and the of customers than before the bike lane's installation, overall positive economic indicators found in this visitors gave higher estimates of spending and visit study. Merchants raised many more concerns than frequency, and vacancy rates were stable. visitors, the most common being over impacts to However, these four indicators also showed similar business, but safety, parking and traffic congestion growth on the Danforth, so the positive outcomes were also important issues. may be attributable to other factors, and not the bike lane. Nevertheless, these early indicators point to a positive, or at least neutral, economic impact of the bike lane. 14 | Toronto Centre for Active Transportation

Additional Considerations

Review third party payment platform data. Extend economic impact tracking. 1. Independent sales data from third party 3. While the bike lane itself was installed in a payment platforms, such as Visa, Moneris matter of weeks, it takes time for the street or Apple Pay, would help to provide a fuller to respond. Particularly from the perspective picture of sales trends, and the City is currently of economic impact, it will likely take longer working to attain this type of data. The City than one year for the full effect (positive or may also wish to investigate other sources negative) of the bike lane to be felt. The of data which were not yet available at the Department of Transportation in New York time of this study’s publication, for example City, a leader in this field, recommends the Centre for the Study of Commercial tracking economic vitality for two to three Activity’s Toronto database and the Planning years after a significant change has been Division’s Toronto Employment Survey. These made, and comparing the findings against sources could be used to explore shifts in retail neighbouring streets and the district as a composition and sizes of business, in addition whole (NYC DOT, 2013). to vacancies. Both of these datasets should be available in early 2018. Review bike lane design configuration. 4. The study revealed the high priority Consider all factors. Torontonians place on safety and found 2. It is important that the economic impact be evidence that while the majority of visitors feel considered in context with other benefits. it is now safer to ride a bicycle on Bloor Street, Economic analysis is just one of a number some visitors (women and older adults in of study tools available to planners and particular), still feel unsafe in the bike lane. The politicians when measuring the benefits of current design is a pilot and uses temporary a new street design. The findings should be materials, such as paint and flexi-posts. Many weighed carefully against the City’s priorities, of these issues could be addressed through particularly the 2017-2021 Vision Zero Road an enhanced design, and the safety analysis Safety plan, along with all available evidence. conducted by the City for the pilot project could be used to identify specific problem areas.