The Impact of COVID-19 Cycling Infrastructure on Low-Stress Cycling Accessibility: A Case Study in the City of Toronto

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of COVID-19 cycling infrastructure on Toronto's low-stress cycling accessibility. We calculated the level of traffic stress (LTS) for the road network with and without the cycling infrastructure built in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We then computed the accessibility to populations, jobs, food stores, and parks for each dissemination area at each LTS. We find that the COVID-19 cycling infrastructure increased low-stress population and job accessibility by 10.4% and 22.3% respectively, and granted food and park access to 54,023 and 3,178 people. Accessibility gains were largest in areas where new infrastructure linked with preexisting networks.