page_title: Cycling in Canada
section_title: Commuting cycling
hierarchical_section_title: Cycling in Canada / Commuting cycling
caption_attribution_description: English: British Columbia Parliament Building, Victoria, British Columbia. Pedicab in foreground.
context_page_description: Cycling in Canada is experienced in various ways across a geographically huge, economically and socially diverse country. Among the reasons for cycling in Canada are for practical reasons such as commuting to work or school, for sports such as road racing, BMX, Mountain bike racing, freestyle BMX, as well as for pure recreation. The amount and quality of bicycle infrastructure varies widely across the country as do the laws pertaining to cyclists such as bicycle helmet laws which can differ by province.
context_section_description: Bicycle commuting to work has grown in popularity due to a grassroots cycling advocacy movement across Canada along with improvements to bicycling infrastructure in cities. Bicycling infrastructure has an impact on the perception of risk and safety which may impact the likelihood that people will commute by bicycle.
  For the 2016 Census Journey to Work data noted that the number of people living in Census Metropolitan Areas commuting by bicycle has increased by 87.9 percent, which is more than twice the pace of overall commuter growth. Canada's overall percent of bicycle commuters from the 2016 census was 1.4 percent. The top five Census Metropolitan Areas by percent of bicycle commuters are; Victoria at 6.6 percent, Kelowna at 2.7 percent, Ottawa-Gatineau at 2.4 percent, Vancouver at 2.3 percent, and Montreal and Saskatoon tied with 2.0 percent of people commuting by bike.
  The Canada 2011 Census recorded that the highest proportion of bicycle commuting to work metropolitan areas in Canada were; Victoria at 5.9 percent, Kelowna at 2.6 percent, Ottawa-Gatuineau at 2.4% and Kingston at 2.2 percent. Victoria has a very mild climate year-round compared to the rest of Canada which may help explain why the proportion of cycling commuters is so much higher, coupled with a compact core and strong bicycle culture. Victoria is home to one of Canada's earliest Bike to Work events that has grown into the popular bicycle commuting campaign in British Columbia known as "Bike to Work Week BC" occurs in May each year and pits workplace teams in friendly competition with other workplaces in their community for a variety of prizes.
  In Toronto, the country's largest city, and the city with the longest average commutes in all of North America, cycle-communing has quickly gained popularity. In 2010, however, Toronto had the highest per capita rate of bike-car collisions of any Canadian city and bike activists have demanded more bike lanes to make cycling safer.  This was derided as "the war on the car" by successful mayoral candidate Rob Ford in the 2010 election.  He was supported by media personality Don Cherry's rant against "the pinkos out there who ride bicycles" at Ford's inauguration. In July 2011, Toronto City Council voted to remove three of the bike lanes added by the previous council and most were removed the following year, the Jarvis bike lane was removed by Fall 2012 despite protesters. Toronto is not the only city to grapple with cyclist-motorist conflicts, however.
caption: According to the Canada 2016 Census, Victoria holds the largest percentage of bike commuters out of any municipality in Canada.
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