Every week, Etobicoke’s Frank Theriault rides 280 kilometres on his bike.

It takes Jennifer Bougouneau Grant an hour to get from her home in Whitby to her bank in Scarborough.

Josh Carr lives in Etobicoke, and is looking forward to buying a car when it makes financial sense.

According to the Transportation Tomorrow Survey, released earlier this year based on 2016 data, 28 per cent of households in Toronto do not have a vehicle. In downtown wards, as many as 55 per cent of households don’t own a vehicle.

But in the ’burbs of Toronto and the surrounding area, car ownership isn’t necessarily the mainstay it’s often assumed to be.

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Near Lawrence Ave. and Keele St. or Hwy. 401 and Markham Rd., the percentage of households without cars checks in at 32 and 25 per cent, respectively.

And according to Liz Sutherland, interim director of advocacy and government relations at Cycle Toronto, the suburban areas of Toronto actually have an advantage over downtown in incorporating pedestrian and cyclist-friendly infrastructure, something she’d like to see more of.

“It’s actually not that difficult in the suburbs,” Sutherland said. “Many of the arterial (roads) have space in the boulevard, or they have very wide traffic lanes. So you can actually create separated, often sidewalk level, cycling infrastructure without taking away any length of traffic or parking or sidewalk space.”

The Star spoke to suburbanites to find out how they make a car-free lifestyle work for them.

‘It’s gonna be bike 99 per cent of the time’

Frank Theriault got rid of his car in 1996 and hasn’t looked back.

The 61-year-old from Etobicoke primarily uses a bike to get around the city. He racks up 280 kilometres a week on two wheels. If his bike is out of commission or he’s travelling with his partner, who doesn’t bike, he will rely on transit.

“Anything that’s beyond a walking distance, it’s gonna be bike 99 per cent of the time,” Theriault said.

According to the survey, about 16 per cent of households in Theriault’s Ward 6 have no car.

Theriault’s daily commute, from his home near Kipling Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd. W. to his job as a logistic co-ordinator for a transportation company near Dixie Rd. and the Hwy. 401, is 15 kilometres each way. He travels on regular city streets — “next to the gutter,” he said — bike paths and multi-use trails.

“I wish we had more bike lanes,” Theriault said, “or more lanes that are good for commuting and higher-speed riding.”

Theriault said cycling infrastructure from his neighbourhood to downtown Toronto is “pretty good.” A new bike path along Lake Shore Blvd. hooks up to the Martin Goodman Trail, making it easy to get downtown, he said.

“You could get downtown by using almost nothing but bike paths and it would take about 45 minutes,” Theriault said. “It’s about 15 minutes longer than by car. And when the traffic is really heavy, I beat cars downtown.”

‘They have to make things easier on people’

Jennifer Bougouneau Grant, 59, of Whitby — where only 5 per cent of households don’t own a vehicle, according to the survey — said it is difficult to get to Toronto and back.

“It’s not easy for people like me,” said Grant, who uses a wheelchair. “Sometimes we’re sitting down in these chairs for so long.”

She uses public transit to get around and spoke to the Star at the Scarborough Town Centre, where she was waiting to take the Whitby GO bus toward home after visiting the bank.

“I take this one and it will take me to the Whitby (station),” she said. “And from the Whitby (station), I wait for the 305 bus to take me home.”

The journey takes about an hour.

Grant said long trips are difficult because it’s uncomfortable to sit down for so long, and she can’t stop to use the washroom along the way. Grant also has to be selective about which transit stops she uses, because not all of them are wheelchair accessible.

“They have to make things easier on people,” said Grant, who’s planning to move to Toronto, where she can take the TTC’s Wheel-Trans. “This is too much.”

‘I don’t have to pay any insurance’

After Janice Kienapple, 26, of North York lost her car, she opted not to replace it.

The mother and York University student says she likes the TTC. “I think it’s more affordable,” she said. “I don’t have to pay any insurance.”

In one North York area, near Yonge St. and Finch Ave., 19 per cent of households do not own a car, according to the survey.

Speaking to the Star outside the York University subway station, pushing her 16-month-old daughter Summer in a stroller, Kienapple said her daily commute from home to the North York campus is about 30 minutes.

She estimates she spends about $2,000 a semester on transportation, which includes public transportation as well as taking Uber or taxis “pretty often, when I need to bring (Summer) to daycare early in the morning.”

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“It’s not easy sometimes,” Kienapple said. If she’s travelling on the TTC with her daughter, Kienapple said it can be tricky to navigate stations without an elevator.

‘It’s cheaper’

Fitzroy Grant, 72, of North York spends most of his time in Jamaica, so the retired driving instructor got rid of his car.

“I don’t need one,” he told the Star after getting off the 36 bus at Jane St. and Finch Ave. W., where he travelled to a dry cleaner’s to pick up a suit for his niece’s wedding.

Grant took the bus from his home near Weston Rd. and Finch Ave. on Thursday. In Grant’s neighbourhood, according to the survey, about 18 per cent of people don’t own a vehicle.

“I only pay $2,” Grant said of the bus. “It’s cheaper.”

(An adult cash fare on the TTC costs $3.25. Those 65 and older pay $2.10)

Grant estimates he spends about $20 a month on public transportation, which he takes about twice a week to go to places such as the doctor’s office and the Beer Store.

‘Once the funds are there and available, I’m going to get a car’

Josh Carr, 24, has never owned a car. He uses buses and the subway to get around Toronto, but plans to get a vehicle when it makes financial sense for him.

“Transit is far more convenient” for now, he told the Star outside the Scarborough Town Centre TTC stop.

Carr lives in Etobicoke, near Martin Grove Rd. and Finch Ave. W. According to the survey, 18 per cent of households in Carr’s Ward 1 do not have a vehicle.

On Wednesday, Carr was in Scarborough visiting his children. He took the train to get to the east end.

“Once the funds are there and available, I’m going to get a car,” he said.

‘I don’t like staying home’

Hibaq Sheikhdahir, 24, of Markham, doesn’t have a car, but with the cost of public transportation, she’s planning to getting one.

The York University student uses public transportation, usually York Region Transit, daily. She’ll also walk or take Uber to get around.

“I have a monthly ticket, because I don’t like staying home,” she said.

She is concerned about the rising cost of the monthly pass. “July was $150, and I was like, that’s too much,” Sheikhdahir said.

In Markham, a mere four per cent of households don’t have a vehicle, according to the survey.

“There’s different ways I do it,” Sheikhdahir said of getting to campus. “But usually I take the number 4 (bus) with the YRT, and then I take the number 108 ... I have a monthly ticket so I prefer taking the YRT.”

‘So far, so good’

Reta Smith, a retiree, has always used transit.

“I’ve never driven or owned a car,” says Smith, as she steps off the 36 Finch West bus at Jane St. “I use the TTC and sometimes my daughter drives me.”

Smith says she tried to learn how to drive but gave up when her instructor left. She never tried again. As for her daughter, she got her licence because she wanted to be able to drive to school.

The former Toronto resident now lives in Brampton, where she moved to after retiring in December to be closer to her daughter.

Smith took a bus from Brampton to get into the city, a two-hour journey.