A Record-Breaking Year for Toronto Cyclist Deaths

Just before 9:00 AM this morning, a 24-year-old female cyclist was killed on Bloor Street east of Avenue Road; making it the fifth cyclist killed this year with five months to go. If you refer to Toronto’s Vision Zero dashboard or Toronto Police’s fatal collisions dashboard, this year has been the deadliest on record for Toronto’s cycling community. However, Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists put up six ghost bikes in Toronto in 2018; two of which didn’t count per the City and Police dashboards. One of them was for a 60-year-old male who collided with a parked delivery van in March 2018 while 19-year-old Aaron Rankin-Wright’s death in June 2018 was targeted and involved stabbing. Regardless of which metric you used, the unprecedented number of cyclist deaths this year deserves some serious reflection.

Miguel Joshua Escanan's ghost bike from August 2021 was not far from today's crash site

July 2024 Ride The Meadoway

This morning, about 75 people took part in “Ride the Meadoway” which was hosted by Toronto East Cyclists, Scarborough Cycles, and Regenesis Cycle UTSC. Bike Share Toronto provided some bikes for those who needed them, while Patty Time served some Jamaican beef patties and vegetarian samosas. Let’s reflect on what happened during the ride.

Avenue Road and Bloor Site Checks

Earlier this week, the City of Toronto started construction of bike lanes on Avenue Road from Bloor Street to Davenport Road. Since I had the day off today and had some errands to run, I decided to check them out on the way home, as well as provide an update on the Bloor bike lane construction between Spadina Avenue and Avenue Road which is in its final stages.

The City of Toronto's plan for Avenue Road from Bloor to Davenport

June 2024 Bloor Site Check (+ Danforth-Kingston Consultation)

The last time I visited Bloor Street in Etobicoke was during a bike count with Community Bikeways (TCBC) which also happened to be the first day of bike lane construction from Aberfoyle to Resurrection. Construction has largely wrapped up since then including the installation of barriers, so I thought I would use my day off work to join TCBC’s “Koffee on the Kingsway” at Café de Flore and check out the newly installed bike lanes.

Uxbridge to Lindsay Rail Trail

One rail trail I wanted to do for a while is the Uxbridge to Lindsay Rail Trail. Back in 2020, I did a short portion of the Omemee Rail Trail from Peterborough to the Doube’s Trestle Bridge, though the trail continued all the way to Lindsay. Both are part of the Trans Canada Trail. Yesterday with the weather finally co-operating, I took GO Transit to Uxbridge to cross that trail off my bucket list.

Reviewing Albert Koehl’s “Wheeling Through Toronto”

While Toronto has had a magazine dedicated to cycling called Dandyhorse as well as books such as Yvonne Bambrick’s “The Urban Cycling Survival Guide” and Shawn Smith’s “Happy Trails”, there hadn’t been a book that gave an appreciation of Toronto’s cycling history. Albert Koehl’s book “Wheeling Through Toronto” was published last month and explores cycling in Toronto over the past 130 years starting with the bicycle craze of the 1890’s. Having finished reading the book this past weekend, let’s review it to see what parallels can be drawn to cycling in the present day.

Get Involved During Bike Month 2024!

Happy Bike Month to all who celebrate!

While I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s Bike to Work Day group commute – you can read Jun’s blog post about it here – there are a few things for Toronto’s cycling community to get involved with this month. These include the Oakridge Neighbourhood Streets Plan, the Avenue Road Study, complete street consultations for Trethewey and Danforth-Kingston, and the overall bike plan. Let’s take a quick look at these projects to see what they have to offer.

A throwback to the 2018 Bike to Work Day group commute from High Park