{"id":788007,"date":"2026-07-08T10:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/788007\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T10:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:29:14","slug":"how-did-people-get-around-toronto-during-the-world-cup-heres-what-the-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/788007\/","title":{"rendered":"How did people get around Toronto during the World Cup? Here’s what the data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

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More people took up walking, cycling and transit to get around the city when it hosted the 2026 World Cup, data obtained by CBC News from the city, TTC and Bike Share shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s hosting duties for the tournament kicked off on June 12 with a game between Canada and Bosnia-Herzegovina and ended on July 2 with a game between Portugal and Croatia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the first match day, data from the city shows that pedestrian activity around Toronto Stadium increased by 130 per cent, and cycling activity went up by 65 per cent, when compared to the previous four weeks. <\/p>\n

The city shared data for two other match days with CBC News:<\/p>\n

June 17 match between Panama and Ghana: Pedestrian activity up 70 per cent around Toronto Stadium.\u00a0June 20 match between Germany and C\u00f4te d’Ivoire: Pedestrian and cycling activity around Toronto Stadium went up by 140 per cent.<\/p>\n

Traffic volume on expressways was also 10 to 30 per cent lower than normal on those three match days, according to city data.<\/p>\n

It’s not clear how traffic data from the World Cup compares to other major events the city has hosted, such as the 2015 Pan Am Games or the Jays’ World Series playoffs last year. CBC Toronto has requested that data from the city.<\/p>\n

Still, Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said the numbers point to a success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the city takes a coordinated approach and really prioritizes a multi-modal approach to transportation, we can keep people moving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The challenge will be making sure these successes become a \u201cnew normal\u201d for the city, said Longfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | Toronto’s plan to handle World Cup congestion:\"\"<\/p>\n

Toronto reveals mobility strategy ahead of the FIFA World Cup<\/p>\n

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup set to kick-off in Toronto soon, many soccer fans are expected to descend upon the city. CBC\u2019s Dale Manucdoc has more on how the city plans to handle the congestion.Public transit use spiked on all 6 match days: TTC data\u00a0<\/p>\n

TTC shared data with CBC News for all six match days, and it showed a similar trend to the city data.<\/p>\n

For example, Toronto\u2019s June 12 opening match saw just over 200,000 trips taken on routes servicing FIFA Fan Fest, such as King, Bathurst and Dufferin. That\u2019s up from just over 137,000 trips taken that same day last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled that on match days we saw a real spike in transit use,\u201d said Josh Colle, chief strategy and customer experience officer with the TTC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was always to make sure we had capacity to allow for World Cup visitors but also for people who want to just go to work that day or go to school,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of proof of concept there for what really excellent transit in the city could and should look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bike share use mostly up for total duration of World Cup<\/p>\n

While both TTC and city data point to big increases in cycling, pedestrian and transit use on match days, Bike Share data shows that during Toronto\u2019s stint as World Cup host, its overall usage increased between June 12 and July 2 when compared to the same timeframe last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That usage spiked even higher on match days, except for the Ghana-Panama patch on June 17.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nichole Jankowski, spokesperson for the city, said that for every match day in Toronto, around 2,000 rides were handled through Bike Share\u2019s valet locations around Toronto Stadium. At valet locations, Bike Share staff help users dock their bike or find an available bike to use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eric Miller, a professor specializing in transportation engineering at the University of Toronto, said the city\u2019s overall transit plan for the World Cup \u201ccame off fairly smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it demonstrates the capability and capacity of the transportation departments and the transit to accommodate these sorts of big special events,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s try to carry forward some of the things we learned about how to move people in the city a little bit better so it happens every day, not just for special events.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-788007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}