Harsh Winter In Southern Ontario Affects Cycling Observations

by | Apr 1, 2025 | News

No, this view is not of Mount Rushmore, or Dr. Suess’s Mount Krumpet. This view of “Mount Snowbank” in London says everything about this year’s winter in Southern Ontario. By mid-February, 2025, similar mountain ranges were formed throughout the City, mainly in larger parking lots.

The winter season of 2024-2025 was particularly harsh in Southern Ontario. Almost reminiscent of those years in the 1970s where major storms shut down many Ontario cities for several days at a time. In contrast the winter of 2023-2024 was essentially non-existent with no snow rarely making an appearance. These extremes may indicate the upcoming climate change with may bring unpredictable and extreme contrasts. This is the reason for making adjustments to our transportation systems by using less fossil fuels. Active transportation, including cycling, has been identified as an important component of transportation change to fight climate change. This article will review what happened in this past winter in this important battle in London, Ontario.

View of This Year’s Winter Conditions in London Ontario

In late November, 2024 it looked like winter was going to be another non-existent season in London. But then on the evening of December a winter storm came in and the snowfall began, one of many throughout this season.

This was the scene in London, Ontario during the mid-day of December 2, 2024 at a typical grocery store after a winter storm dumped substantial snow throughout the region.
Here, children leaving school on December 2, 2024 had an adjustment to make after experiencing minimal snow through the previous winter.
Residence owners also had a surprise after many had already installed Christmas lights on the front of their houses. The continual snowfalls throughout the season meant that many owners could not remove their Christmas lights until near the end of the winter because the lights were frozen underneath snow that had turned into ice.

Cycling In The Winter Season

One factor that became prominent in London is how a harsh winter affects cyclists. This information is not collected or known in the region except through the articles published on the Gorski Consulting website.

The problem is displayed in the following two photos showing how snow accumulation limits cycling.

This is a typical view on November 18, 2024 looking northbound at Upper Queen Street approaching Commissioners Road in London. This shows the northbound cycling lane on Upper Queen Street. Compare this to the next photo taken in February 18, 2025.
This is a view looking north along Upper Queen Street approaching Commissioners Road in London on February 18, 2025. As shown in the previous photo a cycling lane exists somewhere beneath the snowbanks but it is clearly impassable. This is an example of the difficult conditions cyclists had to endure this winter. Not surprisingly, there were very few observations of cyclists throughout the City during these times.

Cycling is difficult in London every winter. But the current winter season has been exceptionally difficult. And this has affected what could be observed during studies of cyclists by Gorski Consulting. Because of the lack of observed cyclists Gorski Consulting had to focus harder on finding them. Thus, even though a similar number of cyclists have been documented during this winter season as in previous years this is only because there was greater effort put forward to finding them.

For cyclist documentation purposes the winter season has been arbitrarily selected by Gorski Consulting to comprise the four months of December, January, February and March. When looking at a full year of cyclist observations the following data has been observed in London:

Year 2021 % Female = 12.54

Year 2022 % Female = 13.11

Year 2023 % Female = 14.60

Year 2024 % Female = 12.54

In contrast winter observations show a substantially lower percentage of female cyclists in London, as shown in the table below.

For the three winter seasons combined (2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24) the average female observations were only 8.50%. However female observations for the current season (2024-25) were only 3.46%. The present data should suggest that the harsh winter conditions of the current season have sharply reduced the number of female cyclists riding on London’s roads. And, overall, female cyclists have already been noted to be a small percentage compared to male cyclists.

Winter remains a difficult time to identify cyclist characteristics such as gender and helmet use. It has been observed that cyclist are less likely to wear helmets in winter conditions. However many cyclists were big hoods over their heads and in some cases it is difficult to know if a helmet is being worn under the hood. Similarly, the quantity of winter clothing makes it more difficult to identify the cyclist’s gender.

In winter it is more difficult to determine the gender of a cyclist and whether they are wearing helmet. In this view the cyclist is wearing a hood but the person could also be wearing a helmet underneath the hood. Also it is not easy to be certain about the cyclist’s gender by considering the characteristics of the cycle and the cyclist’s clothing.

Summary

Cycling in London and throughout the Province of Ontario Canada has recently seen some head winds. The Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, recently announced that he will legislate the removal of cycling lanes along certain arterial roadways in Toronto. He also introduced legislation that will require provincial approval for the installation of any future cycling lanes that take away lanes from motor vehicle traffic. Yet it has been a recent understanding throughout the western world that we need more cyclist to combat carbon emissions and slow down climate change.

In London, Ontario there are a number of arterial roadways where cycling is dangerous because there is no infrastructure to accommodate cyclists. An example of this is the older portion of Hamilton Road in east London that runs between Maitland Street and Highbury Ave. The City of London had already made plans to remove a lane in each direction of travel to install cycling lanes but that decision may now be in jeopardy if Doug Ford’s government prevents this. Meanwhile the City’s and the Province’s official stance is that cyclists must not ride on sidewalks but must ride within the lanes shared with motor vehicle traffic. These official mandates place cyclists in serious danger.

In this view from August, 2023 a male cyclist is seen riding on the north sidewalk of Hamilton Road just east of Rectory Street. Officials require that this cyclist ride within the busy lanes used by motor vehicle traffic yet the province may refuse the installation of a cycling lane.

The lack of safety for cyclists on London’s streets can often be estimated by the number of female cyclists observed on them. The less female cyclists the less likely that the road is safe for all cyclists. The current cycling season has shown that harsh winter conditions also play a role in reduction of female cyclists.

Gorski Consulting continues to provide observations of cyclists in London for the important reason that, with the expected increase in cyclist volumes, cyclist safety will become a greater issue. Up to now Gorski Consulting in the only entity in the region of London, Ontario that provides free distribution of cyclist observations and the dangers that exist to cycling.