The number of cyclists whizzing along Sherbourne St. each day has nearly tripled since its fancy new separated bike lanes opened at the end of 2012, new figures show.

The boost in bicycles is proof that when cyclists feel safe, they’ll take to the streets in greater numbers and more often — which is why Toronto plans to build a network of separated lanes, said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of Toronto’s public works and infrastructure committee.

“The numbers are fantastic — I’m delighted to know Sherbourne’s lanes are working, and the reality is, they’re a huge success,” said Minnan-Wong. “We’re building a network of separated bike lanes that will give people options” along secondary roads, he said, with separated bike lanes along Wellesley St. connecting with Sherbourne, as well as the separated bike lanes planned along Richmond St. and Adelaide St. that are currently being pilot-tested.

New numbers gathered by the city show that in June of this year, an average of 2,827 riders a day used the bike lanes along Sherbourne, now separated from traffic by a low curb and occasional posts, compared with just 955 a day back in 2011, when they were marked by a simple stripe of paint.

Back then, the short-lived bike lanes were still present up and down nearby Jarvis St. But they were scrapped in late 2012, over concerns that they made the car trip down Jarvis too slow by eating up an extra lane — a complaint Minnan-Wong said he has not heard about the Sherbourne lanes, although he admitted Sherbourne is not a main artery like Jarvis.

“I don’t believe this is a zero-sum game; the point of bike lanes isn’t to get cars off the road, but I view it as a balance between motorists and cyclists.”

The new riders along Sherbourne probably include the 800 cyclists who used to use the Jarvis lanes every day and switched to Sherbourne once they were gone, said Jared Kolb, executive director of the advocacy group Cycle Toronto.

“Even so, the numbers on Sherbourne have basically doubled in little more than a year, which is fantastic to see. The only problem is we don’t have enough protected bike lanes,” said Kolb, noting that if anything, the lane needs to be wider to handle the flow.

Cycle Toronto is calling on all candidates in the current municipal election to commit to building 100 kilometres of new protected bike lanes on larger streets and 100 more kilometres of bicycle-friendly boulevards along residential streets such as Shaw St., which uses frequent “flips” in direction to discourage cars, while letting cyclists sail along their lane uninterrupted.

“We know Toronto is a city of cyclists — a 2009 study showed that 54 per cent of Torontonians had ridden a bike in the past year,” he said, but most people need to feel they have a safe route before leaving their neighborhood on two wheels.

“This goes to show the value of protected bike lanes; the proof is in the numbers.”

So far, none of Toronto’s protected bike lanes offer the maximum protection of the truly separated lanes present in cities such as Montreal and Chicago, which have a divider to prevent cars from drifting into the bike lane. The Sherbourne St. lanes offer moderate protection, said Kolb, with their raised sections and flexible posts, like those along Wellesley St.

A recent study in Auckland, New Zealand suggested that building separated bike lanes to encourage more cycling could deliver improvements in health, social equity and pollution that outstrip the cost of building the lanes.