What it takes to win public support for bike lanes

If you follow the pages of Canadian Cycling Magazine, you’ll often see lots of folks who are not fans of bike lanes. There have been ongoing battles against cycling infrastructure across the country. Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia–pick a place and inevitably you’ll find some groups or individuals who want to either kibosh future projects, or yank out present ones.

An interesting piece by The Conversation in the U.K looked at reasons, why, and what can be done to increase popularity.

Just like here, cities across the United Kingdom have spent years rolling out protected bike lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods. With the similar motivation from Canadian cities, it was done in an effort to cut congestion, clean the air and encourage active transportation. Yet public debates — and heated council meetings — often make these measures seem deeply unpopular. We’ve seen the exact same battles with anti-bike and pro-bike groups across Canada.

Doug Ford vows to fight bike lanes and build a giant car tunnel

There have been some notable reversals in the U.K. as well. In 2020, Kensington and Chelsea council removed temporary bike lanes after a brief trial. In Oxford, opponents of traffic-filtered neighbourhoods have called for residential streets to reopen to through traffic, particularly during emergencies.

But research suggests the backlash tells only part of the story.

New mayor keeps Montreal’s bike lanes plans–sorta

A recent UK study analyzing more than 36,000 tweets posted between 2018 and 2022 found that online sentiment toward bike lanes and low-traffic neighbourhoods was more positive than negative. Researchers counted roughly 14,000 positive posts. That is compared with about 10,000 negative ones, with the remainder neutral.

Negative sentiment spiked in the summer of 2020. That was when the UK government fast-tracked cycling infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic. The same thing happened here in Canada, with many cities building more bike lanes. It was to help with people getting fresh air–and also, it was at a time when transit could be risky. Crowded subways meant possible exposure to COVID-19. Riding a bike outside was far safer that way. But according to the study, even then, positive reactions still outnumbered criticism.

The research found that most complaints were not about cycling itself. Instead, they focused on how projects were designed and introduced. Poorly marked lanes, inconsistent…