The city councillor for Ward 11 is questioning whether the number of cyclists using the new downtown bike grid is worth the money spent.

In a blog post, Councillor Mike Nickel wrote about statistics recorded in recent months that showed about 1,000 to 1,200 cyclists used the downtown bike lanes daily.

“It’s not that I’m against bike lanes, but the whole point, and the millions we spent on this project was to get numbers out of it, to see if we were getting proper value,” Nickel said.

The downtown bike grid cost $7.5 million.

The city’s tracking site showed that in October as many as 3,000 cyclists were being recorded on multiple days.

Advocates of the bike lanes said more time is needed – possibly a few years – to determine how many cyclists are using the designated lanes.

“I think you need a couple of years, you need to go through the cycle, because there’s obviously a lot more people who cycle in the summer than cycle in the winter,” Dave Buchanan, Board Chair of Paths for People said.

In the summer, the city said the numbers are considerably higher. On May 28, for example, before the bike lanes in the downtown grid were open, 2,454 riders were recorded.

After the lanes reopened a month later, 4,711 rides were recorded on cameras pointed at the lanes.

Moving forward, Nickel said he plans to keep asking for results.

“Is it wrong to ask? I don’t think so,” Nickel said. “Just got to keep pushing, that’s what I’m going to do.”

With files from David Ewasuk