In the past five years Gorski Consulting has accumulated over 5300 observations of cyclists riding on or adjacent to the streets of London, Ontario. In this past year of 2025 there have been 1434 cyclists documented making it the most in this five-year period. As done in previous years, the charts containing the detailed data are presented below.
The Data
Analysis
Cyclist Gender
Some of the characteristics of cyclists being tracked include gender. This is not always easy because some factors, such as the wearing of headgear, make it difficult to determine gender. However, by removing the small number of observations where gender could not be determined, the following provides a breakdown of cyclist gender in each of the five years.
Year 2021: Total Females = 77, Total Males = 487, Percent Females = 12.54
Year 2022: Total Females = 135, Total Males = 895, Percent Females = 13.11
Year 2023: Total Females = 138, Total Males = 807, Percent Females = 12.54
Year 2024: Total Females = 151, Total Males = 1032, Percent Females = 12.54
Year 2025: Total Females = 186, Total Males = 1204, Percent Females = 13.38
These data show that female cyclists consistently average in the range of 13% of the cycling population. This is quite low. Studies in other parts of the City, such as on the Thames Valley Parkway, show that the percentage of female riders is higher.
Riding on Sidewalks
Despite that City and provincial laws prohibit cyclists from riding on sidewalks, this method of travel continues to be a common activity, as demonstrated in the following breakdowns.
Year 2021: Females on Sidewalk = 64.94%, Males on Sidewalk = 64.89%
Year 2022: Females on Sidewalk = 72.59%, Males on Sidewalk = 65.25%
Year 2023: Females on Sidewalk = 65.22%, Males on Sidewalk = 66.79%
Year 2024: Females on Sidewalk = 70.86%, Males on Sidewalk = 62.79%
Year 2025: Females on Sidewalk = 59.68%, Males on Sidewalk = 55.07%
The smaller percentage of cyclists observed on sidewalks is lower in 2025 because there was a change in where the cyclist observations were made. In 2025 there was an increased focus on comparing two roadways: Hamilton-Horton versus Upper Queen-Ridout. The Upper Queen-Ridout roadway contains a cycling lane therefore almost all cyclists riding on this road were riding in the cycling lane and not on the sidewalk. The purpose for comparing these two roadways is because previous data suggested there could be a difference in the characteristics and safety of cyclists between them and more data was needed to examine whether this hypothesis was true. These findings will be discussed in a future article.
Even roadways that do not contain a cycling lane exhibit differences in the percentage of cyclists riding on a sidewalk. Higher sidewalk usage has been previously observed on Hamilton Road and even more so on Dundas Street between Highbury Ave and Clarke Road. Yet cyclist fatalities have been reported recently on both Hamilton Road and Dundas Street and it is suspected that those occurred when cyclists were riding in a shared lane with motor vehicle traffic and not riding on a sidewalk. Unfortunately officials such as police have never revealed how these fatalities occurred.
Cyclist Helmet Use
Although not reported here, cyclist helmet use is also being tabulated during these observations. The data from 2025 has not yet been compiled. The most recent calculations are for 2024 and these have shown that the percentage of males not wearing helmets was 65.99%, while the percentage for females was 53.29%.
There are several practical problems with helmet use. Some riders have complained that helmets are too expensive. Others find them too hot in summertime and too cold in winter. These issues are never discussed in the official circles of London Ontario yet they influence non-usage and therefore increase the severity of injury during a collision or other mishap.
Cyclists Riding Through Pedestrians Crossings
In the last 4 years (2022-25) Gorski Consulting has been documenting the numbers of cyclists passing through pedestrian crossings. Cyclists are told that, if they approach a pedestrian crossing they need to dismount and walk their bike across. But the reality is far different. For example, in the past four years 359 cyclists were observed in a pedestrian crossing. Of those only 42 actually walked their cycle through the crossing. A total of 88.3 % of cyclists rode through the crossing. This finding was consistent across all four years. An additional finding is that those cyclists who enter a pedestrian crossing do so, almost exclusively, from riding on a sidewalk.
Cyclists do not realize that when collisions occur and matters reach civil litigation lawyers are quick to use the cyclist’s riding in a pedestrian crossing as contributory negligence and therefore a substantial portion of the cyclists claim will be deducted by a judge. Given the very large percentage of cyclists that ride through a pedestrian crossing this becomes an easy attack against cyclists.
Cargo Bikes
Officially we understand that cargo bikes are a class of cycles that are manufactured to carry cargo along with the cyclist. A view of such cycle is shown below.
Far more cyclists are seen with improvisations that include attachments of mini-trailers, wagons and even golf carts. These need to be recognized and considered when developing a strategy for improving cyclist safety in London.
Summary
Cyclist observations are the only source of objective data that the public can obtain about what is taking place with cycling in London, Ontario. The point of such observations is to assess whether the cycling mode of transportation is increasing as per the needs to fight climate change. But these observations are also the only objective information that the public can use to evaluate cyclist safety in the City of London. If transparency existed, like it should, the public would be provided with much deeper and relevant information by police, city staff, news media and by hospitals that receive injured cyclists. That is not happening. In fact, on the few occasions when cyclist collisions are reported, they either involve fatal, or serious injuries to the cyclist. But nothing of relevance is revealed as to how the event occurred or what factors were at play. This leads to fatalities and injuries that recur, over and over again, as cyclists and drivers do not understand how they could improve their safety.
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