Mapping where we need more and better bike parking in Toronto.

Report a bike parking issue
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About BikeSpace

Every cyclist has struggled to find space to park. There is simply not enough bike parking to meet demand. Bike racks are often full, requiring a cyclist to improvise using poor alternatives like sign posts or fences. Too often racks are ancient wheel-benders, awkwardly located, or taken up by abandoned bikes.

BikeSpace is a community-built web app originally started with support from the City of Toronto and Cycle Toronto. It lets people report the issues they find when trying to park their bikes in the city. This simple web app is:

  • quick and easy to use,
  • designed for mobile and desktop,
  • building a public map of parking problems in Toronto,
  • creating a data-driven picture to drive change.

City planners, businesses and property managers all know there is a problem. They want to build simple and safe bike parking across the city but they need solid evidence of demand to invest smartly. Toronto needs a data-driven solution to bike parking—BikeSpace will produce that data and drive real change.

We invite you to try the BikeSpace web app and tell us what you think! If you have feedback about the app, please feel free to share it using the issues tab of our GitHub page.

The BikeSpace Mission

Community-Built

BikeSpace is made entirely by a group of committed volunteers who want to improve their city.

Bike-Friendly

We want cycling to be safe, fun and recognized as a valid form of transportation.

Data-Driven

We think that smart solutions need a basis in real evidence and high-quality data.

Hopeful

We love our city and believe we can help make Toronto a world-class city for cyclists!

Building the evidence for change

We at BikeSpace believe that no cyclist suffers alone. The problems you encounter daily trying to park your bike are part of a larger story. If we share these problems in a structured way we can gather data to create change. BikeSpace aims to make reporting these concerns as easy as possible. Each time you use the BikeSpace web app you can share:

  • the type of issue encountered,
  • the location of your parking problem,
  • the date and time when encountered,
  • a user comment (optional).

We want to uncover the systemic issues that prevent people from hopping on their bikes. We want people to lock their bikes up with the assurance that their property is safe from vandalism and theft. As more and more cyclists participate a picture will start to form of the pattern of problems cyclists face:

  • broken bike racks that are not secure,
  • areas where new bike parking is most needed,
  • racks where bikes get stolen,
  • spots held up by abandoned bikes,
  • inaccessible or unusable parking spots.

How is my data used?

BikeSpace is being developed by a group of volunteers from Civic Tech Toronto. Our team believes that all data collected for this project should be available to the public. We strive for transparency both in how we work and in the products we build. When data is open it has the best chance of reaching the most people. Only by being public can it create accountability for finding solutions.

In practice, all data collected will go through a 3 step process:

  1. Any cyclist with access to the internet can leave an anonymous report using the app.
  2. Anybody can explore the public data on our interactive dashboard.
  3. An updated machine-readable dataset is accessible in real-time through our API.

The app does not currently record any personally-identifiable information. We only collect high-quality data about bike parking issues to inform those who want to install bike parking. Your participation supports investment in smart, new cycling infrastructure.

Use the map to find bicycle parking across Toronto

About the Data

Map data is from the City of Toronto open data portal.

Please note: data on this map may be incomplete or out of date. We are currently working on improving this parking map — let us know if you would like to help out!

OpenCycleMap.org is another great resource which displays bicycle parking reported by OpenStreetMap users. (Make sure to zoom in and see the map key for more details!)

It's time we had our own tool

At BikeSpace, we see that the time for Toronto to actively build a bike-friendly city has arrived, and we believe that parking safely is just as essential for cyclists as moving around safely. More and more people are cycling as their primary form of transit, which means the need for safe, convenient, and accessible bicycle parking continues to grow.

The City of Toronto has been developing a Bicycle Parking Strategy since the launch of the 2016 10-Year Cycling Network Plan. Property owners are recognizing that building bike lockers gives them happier tenants. Businesses are realizing that new bike racks bring in new customers and gives their employees more choice in how to get to work. Overall, safe cycling infrastructure creates healthier communities, less traffic congestion, and less pollution.

The goal of this platform is to empower cyclists and to give their voices greater power by making it easy to share and explore bicycle parking needs. By focusing on bike parking, we concentrate our impact on a specific issue. Too often reporting tools try to be everything for everyone and end up improving nothing for no one. Even a tool for cyclists needs to be specific to be successful. There is a lot of work for us to do but the foundation of any bike-friendly city is safe, convenient, and accessible parking.

Help us build BikeSpace

We are a small team of volunteers who are passionate about making our city kinder and safer to cyclists. There are many ways you can assist us in our mission:

Promote BikeSpace

Do you know at least one other person who bikes? Help us get the word out!

Join our team

This is an exciting project built by a great people and we invite anybody who wants to help to join us!

There are lots of great ways to get involved:

Get updates

Join our newsletter for updates on the project and for opportunities to make a change:

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