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That number jumps to 3.6 per cent of those who reported using their bikes “all day” in a city of where 164,806 daily cycling trips were made.

While that’s lower than some cycling advocates have argued in opposing Ford’s removal of bike lanes on Yonge Street, Bloor Street and University Avenue, bicycle use has been steadily climbing since the 2006 survey.

Testifying last week at the legislative committee examining the bill, Jacquelyn Hayward, director of transportation planning, design and management at the City of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, said the study should be made public to better inform the debate around bike lanes.

Asked at committee by Liberal MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon (Beaches-East York) if it would “be helpful if the government released the Transportation Tomorrow Survey,” the high-ranking municipal bureaucrat nodded.

“Yes. We have access to it as a partner in it and we believe that it should be available for public consumption and planning,” said Hayward, who spoke out against the province’s legislation and questioned the use of “very old data” by the government.

“The Transportation Tomorrow Survey 2022 is available and it demonstrates numbers that are very different from that,” she said, adding in some parts of the city “closer to 10” per cent cycle.

“In wards that are served by the bike lanes in question, the numbers are staggering and higher.”

As first reported by the Star, city officials used the data in the provincial study in a confidential staff report to council earlier this month.

Under the new law, which passed Monday, municipalities must seek provincial approval for any bike lanes that remove vehicular lanes. Intended to reduce traffic gridlock, critics have warned it will make cycling less safe because existing ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ infrastructure will also be removed.

The  — co-ordinated by the Ministry of Transportation in partnership with 24 municipalities and transit agencies, including the City of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, the TTC and Metrolinx — is normally conducted every five years and involves thousands of interviews.

Done in fall 2022 and spring 2023, it was supposed to be made public last month, but has remained under wraps as Ford’s Progressive Conservatives pushed through controversial measures designed to ease congestion.

“No decision is sought for the release given it is regular ministry business to release the results once the survey is complete,” says the 38-page “preliminary findings draft” PowerPoint deck obtained by the Star.

“The deck is to provide awareness of the findings in advance of the release planned for December 13, 2024,” says the internal document dated Nov. 22.

It found “an increase in walking and cycling trips was observed, especially in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½” since the last survey that was done in 2016. (The scheduled 2021 survey was delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Asked about mode of transportation in the “AM Peak,” 3.1 per cent of people in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ aged 11 and up commuted by bicycle while 13 per cent walked.

Some 46 per cent of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½nians drove their own cars or trucks in the morning with another 11 per cent being passengers in private vehicles and 25 per cent took public transit.

The numbers change slightly when surveyed about “all day” modes of transportation: 3.6 per cent rode bikes, 50 per cent drove, 12 per cent were passengers, 22 per cent took transit, and 10 per cent walked.

For the rest of the Greater ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and Hamilton Area, 66 per cent drove their own vehicles in the morning with another 13 per cent passengers, eight per cent walked, six per cent took transit and one per cent cycled.

Asked about “all day” transportation use, 70 per cent drove, 16 per cent were passengers, five per cent walked, five per cent took transit and 0.9 per cent used bicycles.

In the rest of the Greater Golden Horseshoe — including Guelph, Niagara Region, Barrie and Peterborough — 72 per cent drove their own vehicles in the morning with another 10 per cent being passengers, seven per cent walked, two per cent took transit and 1.4 per cent cycled.

For “all day” trips in the exurban area, 75 per cent drove, 14 per cent were passengers, four per cent walked, two per cent took transit and 1.3 per cent rode bikes.

ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ had by far the most daily cycling trips of any municipality in the survey with 164,806, followed by Waterloo with 20,995, 18,822 in Hamilton, 17,047 in Peel, 14,568 in York, and 11,959 in Halton.

That compares to 52,171 daily users in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ of paid ride share services like Uber. In Peel, there were 14,426 daily ride share users with York at 6,066, Halton at 4,221, and Durham at 3,595.

Under the heading “Key Take Aways for 2022 TTS,” the PowerPoint deck concludes “the automobile remains the dominant mode of transportation.”

That may explain why Ford’s Tories have targeted bike lanes on main arteries in a bid to tackle gridlock that the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Region Board of Trade has estimated costs the economy $11 billion annually.

“One per cent of the population cannot take up 50 per cent of the roads,” the premier said Monday in Burlington.

But the survey found cycling is continuing to grow in popularity — one per cent of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½nians did their morning commute by bike in 2006, 1.6 per cent in 2011, 2.5 per cent in 2016 and 3.1 per cent in 2022.

Similarly, 1.1 per cent of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½nians reported “all day” riding trips in the 2006 study, 1.9 per cent in 2011, 2.7 per cent in 2016 and 3.6 per cent in 2022.

The City of ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ estimates it will take $48 million to dismantle 22 kilometres of bike lanes that cost $27 million to install, a tally Ford has dismissed as inflated “hogwash.”

To protect its legal flank, the province has indemnified itself against any lawsuits if someone is killed or injured where a bike lane has been removed.