Victoria is one of the most bikeable cities in Canada and it shows when you look at the numbers.
According to the Capital Regional District (CRD), 706,241 bicycle journeys were made in 2022 where the Galloping Goose and Harbour Road cross paths in Vic West.
That’s just one intersection of Victoria’s massive bicycle network.
Cyclists using this route peaked in 2019 at 771,553 trips through the years and have remained steady since then.
The first year the bicycle trip counter was installed, it recorded 588,296 and didn’t break 700,000 until the Johnson Street Bridge was completed in 2018–the Galloping Goose at Harbour Road being a major artery to the bridge for cyclist traffic.
The CRD has an interactive map for Victorians to be able to see in real-time how many people are using the corridor and all other places where bike trip statistics are recorded.
According to the map, already in 2023, an average of over 800 cyclists pass by the bike counter on a daily basis.
Statistics Canada says that according to their latest census in 2021, more than 15% of workers over the age of 15-years-old got to their place of work by bike or by walking daily.
This is the highest percentage of walkers and cyclists in Canada per capita with Kingston, Ontario being next on the list with 8% of their population choosing to walk or bike to work.
Another important thing to consider is that since the pandemic, Statistics Canada has found that 14% less people commute to work despite the 8% population growth because they are able to work from home.
When looking at the intersection of the Galloping Goose and Harbour Road, the numbers show that there are more weekend cyclists annually than before the pandemic.
This means more people are out on bikes using the cycling infrastructure for recreation than ever before.
