May 1, 2026 - (Toronto, ON) Municipal election day isn’t until Monday, October 26, but with nominations opening on Friday, May 1 election season kicks off for real in just under one week.
Before the barrage of promises and slogans, we’ve looked back and compiled a Toronto City Council Cycling Scorecard for the past four years.
Right off the top: scores are not endorsements. Cycle Toronto is a non-partisan organization, and while we continue to represent you by championing cycling at City Hall, we are always ready to work issue by issue with every elected official.
This scorecard exists to document how your councillor has voted on key cycling items, motions, and amendments in the 2022-2026 council term, and how they compare to their colleagues. It doesn’t capture how individual councillors shape projects in their own wards, for example, where a lot of decisions get made before the vote. And it would be a mistake to infer anything in particular from any individual absence. But showing up to vote is better than not.
We encourage you to dive in.
Even at a glance it is inarguable that this council is very supportive of cycling items: no major cycling item failed, many passed without recorded votes. Overall 69% of councillors support cycling at least 80% of the time. Despite the hot takes and headlines, it’s hard to conclude that bike lanes are controversial except among a very vocal minority.
That said, there’s a clear disconnect: despite the supportive votes, the city is well below achieving its (already modest) 3-year, 100 km target of new and upgraded bike lanes in the Cycling Network Plan. (Cycle Toronto had advocated for a more ambitious target of 150 km.) Only 59.4 km of bike lanes have been built over the past three years, and many of those are only “shared lane markings” that many advocates wouldn’t track in their counts. (And before rushing to solely blame provincial overreach, Bill 212 only came into effect in late 2024 and Bill 60 in late 2025.)
Some projects that were approved by council in principle have since been walked back or diluted including Brimorton (no protection, only paint), Jones (no protection, only paint), Logan-Carlaw (no contra-flows, only sharrows), and Marlee (paused to be reconsidered as part of a broader neighbourhood study).
There’s also the glaring question of the Eglinton bike lanes from Bicknell to Mount Pleasant that were approved almost two years ago but remain a confusing and dangerous collection of disconnected stubs with no clear timelines or updates to connect. The previous excuses last fall of the Line 5 Eglinton Crosstown delays no longer resonate.
(20-1 in favour of 2024.IE13.2 – eglintonTOday Phase 1 Complete Street Project including protected bike lanes. Image: City of Toronto)
Those things don’t show up in the scorecard. The disconnect between support and kilometres suggests something still isn’t working as intended, and requires either a change in process or a need for more cycling champions among the many supporters to push projects forward before and after those council votes.
Want to have a say in Cycle Toronto’s municipal election campaign for a better cycling city? Become a member and complete the survey ahead of our members-only virtual town hall on Wednesday, May 13.
