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Multiple Skills: How do we evaluate claims about bike use in Toronto?

SKILL: Multiple Skills

DIFFICULTY: Challenging

SUBJECT(S): Politics/Current Events

Sometimes it requires using more than one skill to evaluate information online. In this example, students start by tracing a statistic cited by Ontario Premier Doug Ford that says that only 1.2 percent of Torontonians commute to work on a bicycle to learn it is outdated. Next, students use keyword searches to find more accurate information about bike use and Toronto. As an optional final exercise, students think about how to understand information from persuasive sources.

Related Lesson

Verification Skills

Link to Example

Doug Ford tweet (X)

Photograph of person bicycling on city road wearing a bright green jacket

Background

On October 21, 2024, the Government of Ontario put forward new legislation to limit the construction of new bike lanes in the province, as a measure to attempt to reduce traffic congestion in cities.

The law would require municipalities to demonstrate that new bike lanes will not have a “negative impact on vehicle traffic,” and may include a review of existing infrastructure as well as the removal of some existing bike lanes.

About the Example

If you cannot access X/Twitter, click here to see a video capture of the post and included audio.

This post, shared by Ontario Premier Doug Ford on X (formerly Twitter), makes the claim that only 1.2% of Torontonians use bicycles to commute to work, compared to 70% who drive.

The post does not link to outside reporting, but in the audio Premier Ford cites Statistics Canada as a source for the claim.

Let’s use a keyword search (‘statistics canada Toronto bicycle commute 1.2 percent’) to trace this information back to Statistics Canada and see if there is any additional context we should consider.

After doing a search we can find a Statistics Canada table that seems to confirm Premier Ford’s claim that 1.2 percent of workers commute to work by bike and 70% of workers commute by car. The data, however, is based on a 2011 census and might not reflect current Torontonian transportation preferences.

This search also brings up a CBC article on the story in which Ontario MPP Jessica Bell flags the Ford’s statistics as from 2011 and claims that as many as 22% of all Ontario residents use their bicycles on a daily basis, citing a 2023 report from an advocacy group called Share the Road Cycling Coalition.

While the article does not provide a link to the report, we can do another keyword search (‘Share the road Cycling coalition 2023 report’) to find the report in question. Here we find that MPP Bell’s claim is slightly off, as it claims 22% of Ontarians use their bicycles on a daily or almost daily basis. The report does not share any statistics specific to Toronto, and the data includes all bicycle use, not just commuting to work. As such, it may be useful to do a second keyword search to find more relevant information.

If we search for ‘Toronto bicycle commute statistics’, we can find something a bit more recent: a link to a 2019 City of Toronto Cycling study. The summary for the report, found on page 2, claims that as many as 44% of Torontonians are ‘utilitarian cyclists’ who cycle to go to work or school, to go shopping, or to visit friends, higher than the figures presented by both Premier Ford and MPP Bell.

Activities

Trace the Information:

Show students the post and have them read the tweet and listen to the audio to summarize the claim.
Ask your students to trace the statistic back to the original source to see if it is accurate and if they can find any additional context.
Teacher note: Provide the hint that they should include the name of the original source “Statistics Canada” as well as some keywords such as “Toronto bicycle commute 1.2 percent”.
Have your students analyze the Statistics Canada table and read the CBC article.
Teacher note: By using the CTRL+F skill (command + F on a Mac) students can quickly search the Statistics Canada table for “Toronto” and CBC article for “1.2”. For a demonstration of this skill see video Skill: Click Through and Find (at 4:51 minutes).
Ask your students to trace the statistic cited by MPP Bell to the Share the Road Cycling Coalition report using a keyword search to see if it is accurate.

Guiding questions:

Is the claim made by Premier Ford in the tweet and attached video mostly true, mostly false, or somewhere in between? How did you decide?
Is the claim made by MPP Bell mostly accurate, or mostly inaccurate? How did you decide?

Advanced Claim Check

Explain to students that since the statistic from Premier Ford is outdated and the statistic from MPP Bell is about all Ontarians, not just Torontonians, we need to do more research to get a more accurate understanding of bike use in Toronto.
Have students use a keyword search (such as “Toronto bicycle commute statistics’”) to find more information about bike use in Toronto. This should bring up a result from the 2019 City of Toronto Cycling study.
Ask students to read the summary on page 2 to learn more about bike use in Toronto.

Guiding questions:

What did you learn about bike use in Toronto from the City of Toronto Cycling Study?
Does the information presented in the 2019 City of Toronto Cycling study confirm or contradict the claims made by both Premier Ford and MPP Bell? How did you decide?
Why is it important to make sure that, when sharing facts and statistics, we stay as true to the original context of the claim as possible?

Understanding Persuasive Sources (Optional)

In this example we have encountered two different politicians with differing views on bike lanes, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Ontario MPP Jessica Bell. Premier Ford cited an old statistic that might underestimate bike lane use. In the CBC article, MPP Jessica Bell cited a statistic from an advocacy group called Share the Road Cycling Coalition.

Watch CIVIX Explains: Persuasive Sources with your class to learn more about sources whose agenda is to persuade others to support their cause or goal. Guiding questions:

What was the agenda/purpose of Premier Ford’s tweet?
What is the agenda/purpose of Share the Road Cycling Coalition?
How does the information they shared persuade others to support their position on bike lanes in Toronto?
How does knowing their agendas impact your understanding of the information they shared?
Why is it important to look for multiple viewpoints and do our own research when considering issues of social importance?