Claude Alain cycles almost five kilometres to and from his workplace in North York every day.The Yonge and Eglinton resident uses side streets to get to Baycrest Health Sciences near Bathurst St. and Hwy. 401, where he is a senior scientist.Despite a lack of safe bike infrastructure, the area where he works has seen a slight growth in the number of people biking to work from 2006 to 2016, a new report indicates.“It’s good for the environment,” Alain said. “It’s a good workout … when you’re done from work, I like getting on the bike and going home and it kind of separates work from home.”The report, put out by the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT), an organization advocating for a better cycling and pedestrian environment, analyzed census data in the city’s three community council areas, Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke York, and found the majority of the suburbs remained static, with some slight increases and decreases in cycling to work.Seven areas saw increases ranging from 1 to 3 per cent over the time frame. In a part of south Etobicoke, the rate was even higher. Five of them are near hospitals or post-secondary schools: Rexdale around Finch Ave. and Hwy. 27, south Etobicoke (Long Branch, New Toronto and Mimico), Willowdale around Finch Ave. and Bathurst St., Lawrence Manor around Bathurst and Hwy. 401 and Bendale around Ellesmere and McCowan roads. “These hospitals and college campuses create employment hubs,” said TCAT’s Yvonne Verlinden, the report’s author. “That’s real opportunity and people might live close enough to their workplaces to cycle.”Alain said he’s seen more people riding bikes in his neighbourhood.“It seems to increase progressively,” he said.Verlinden agrees, adding she thinks there’s growing interest in suburban cycling.“I think people often see the suburbs as uniform like ‘Oh, the suburbs ...
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