Access to green space is widely recognized as a key indicator for mental, physical, and emotional health. Much of Toronto’s green space is found through its extensive ravine system, much of which is linked by a multi-use trail system, which has inspired the City’s Parks, Forestry, and Recreation motto: “a city within a park”. On top of providing benefits as a space for recreation and nature, much of Toronto’s multi-use trail system provides cyclists routes removed from vehicular traffic that connect many parts of the city. Despite these benefits, there is very little publicly available information on who currently uses and benefits from Toronto’s parks and multiuse trail systems, and whether their amenities are equitably accessible to all Torontonians. To address this gap, between June and August 2024, The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) conducted intercept surveys and travel counts (tabulations of all people who move across a given threshold in a set time period) in three major multi-use trails across the city. This report presents key findings from an analysis of cross-cutting trends in the data as well as a demographic analysis that identified associations between demographic variables and trail behaviour, perceptions, and barriers and opportunities to increase trail use.
