The gap between summer and winter cycling counts in Canadian cities is wide, but it is not as wide as popular perception suggests. Automated counter data from Ottawa's Laurier Avenue shows a winter-to-summer ratio of roughly 1:4 — meaning that for every four cyclists on the route in July, one is still there in January. Calgary's pathway system, which the city has maintained through winter since the 1970s, consistently records non-zero counts on all but the coldest days.
What separates cities with meaningful winter cycling numbers from those where riding drops to near zero isn't primarily climate — it's infrastructure maintenance. The cities where winter cycling is relatively common are the cities that plow and salt dedicated cycling infrastructure within hours of a snowfall, not days. The cities where winter cycling is rare tend to be the cities where bike lanes are cleared only after road lanes, if at all.
The infrastructure maintenance question
Ottawa clears its 13.5 km Laurier cycletrack, along with several other priority cycling corridors, as part of its winter maintenance priority list. The city operates a dedicated sidewalk and multi-use pathway plow fleet separate from road maintenance. In practice, this means that cyclists on priority routes can expect a cleared surface within 8–12 hours of a snowfall event — comparable to the cleared-road timeline that drivers expect.
Calgary takes a similar approach to its extensive pathway network. The city operates more than 900 km of pathways year-round, with active winter maintenance on priority routes. The pathways are not cycling infrastructure in the conventional urban sense — many are recreational in character — but they have established the expectation and operational infrastructure for year-round non-motorised travel.
Toronto's approach has been more inconsistent. The city's official policy designates certain cycle tracks as winter-maintained, but implementation has varied by ward and by staffing capacity. Cyclists on non-designated routes can expect the lane surface to track the adjacent sidewalk clearing timeline rather than the road clearing timeline — which in practice means multi-day delays after significant snowfall.
What to ride in winter
Tyre selection is the most significant equipment decision for winter cycling. Three categories cover most situations:
Studded tyres
Carbide or steel studs embedded in a tyre's contact patch provide traction on ice — the condition that causes most winter cycling falls. Studded tyres are the standard recommendation for cities with freeze-thaw cycles, where wet pavement can become black ice unpredictably. The Schwalbe Marathon Winter and Nokian Hakkapeliitta are the most commonly recommended models in Canadian cycling communities. Stud count matters: tyres with 100–200 studs in multiple rows across the contact patch outperform sparser patterns on hard ice, but the performance difference is less pronounced on packed snow.
Studded tyres add rolling resistance compared to summer tyres — estimate a 10–20% increase in effort on clear pavement. On ice, they are a qualitatively different experience: a bike with studs on ice is stable in a way that no other tyre is.
Wide knobby tyres without studs
A 2.0–2.4" mountain bike tyre with an open tread pattern performs well on packed snow and loose snow, where surface area and tread evacuation matter more than studs. These tyres are inadequate on ice. They are appropriate for riders in cities with consistent snow cover (rare in southern Canada) or for use on plowed pathways where ice is not the primary concern.
Standard road or commuter tyres
Not recommended for winter riding in most Canadian cities. Wet road tyres lose a significant fraction of their grip at temperatures below 7°C — the rubber compounds used in summer tyres are designed to operate in warm conditions. A commuter tyre on a cold, wet road in November is already compromised; on ice, it offers almost no reliable traction.
Clothing and layering
Winter cycling clothing follows a standard layering principle that applies to most outdoor winter activities in Canada, with some cycling-specific considerations:
- Base layer: Merino wool or synthetic wicking fabric. Cotton absorbs moisture and stays cold against skin — avoid it entirely. A merino base layer regulates temperature effectively across a wide range of effort levels.
- Mid layer: Down or synthetic insulation for temperatures below -10°C. At -5°C to 0°C, a mid layer is often unnecessary while riding at moderate pace — the effort generates sufficient warmth.
- Wind/waterproof shell: The most important layer for cycling. A windproof jacket eliminates the wind-chill effect that makes moving at 20 km/h feel far colder than standing still at the same temperature. Fully waterproof is ideal for wet cities like Vancouver; wind-resistant is usually sufficient for drier-cold cities like Calgary and Edmonton.
- Hands: Hands are typically the first body part that becomes uncomfortable. Winter cycling gloves rated to -15°C are available from most major cycling brands; pogies — insulated mitts that attach to the handlebars and allow operation of brake levers and shifters — are warmer than any glove for extreme cold.
- Face and neck: A balaclava or neck gaiter addresses the face exposure that accumulates on longer rides. A cycling-specific helmet cover prevents heat loss through the helmet's ventilation channels.
Route selection and pacing
In winter, route selection prioritises surface condition over distance or speed. A longer route on a plowed and sanded cycle track is safer and faster in practice than a shorter route on an uncleared lane with ice patches. This changes trip planning: riders who use a GPS or a phone for navigation benefit from winter-specific routing that accounts for which corridors the city maintains.
Pacing adjustments matter. Braking distance on ice is approximately three to four times longer than on dry pavement, regardless of tyre choice. Speed on descents should be reduced accordingly. Cornering on snow requires shifting weight earlier and pedaling through corners rather than coasting, which is a different technique than dry-weather riding.
Lights are essential year-round but critical in winter. Sunrise is after 8 AM in most of Canada by November, and commutes that were daylight trips in September become dawn or dark trips by October. A front light rated at 300+ lumens and a rear light visible from 200+ metres cover the range of conditions on urban streets.
Why some riders stop in winter and others don't
Surveys of winter cyclists in Ottawa and Calgary consistently identify the same set of factors that determine whether a rider continues through the winter or stops: quality of the commute route surface, confidence with their equipment, and whether the trip is feasible within their normal time budget. The last factor is significant — a winter commute that takes 50% longer than a summer commute due to ice and poor surfaces is unsustainable as a daily habit, regardless of the rider's motivation.
Cities that invest in priority winter maintenance for cycling infrastructure address all three factors simultaneously: the surface quality improves, the conditions that require specific equipment become less frequent, and the trip time approaches the summer baseline. The data from Ottawa and Calgary suggests that this is what actually sustains winter cycling at meaningful scale, rather than individual rider equipment or attitude.
For riders in cities where maintenance is inconsistent, the practical advice is to identify the specific corridors that the city does prioritise — often stated in the city's winter maintenance schedule, which is a public document in most Canadian municipalities — and plan routes around those corridors rather than the most direct route from a summer map.