Twelve Days of Bicycles - Eleven Trails Ablazing

UPDATE (2016/02/09): This post has also been featured in Dandyhorse, which can be viewed at this link.

Until February 15, 2016, stakeholders of the West Toronto Railpath Extension have the opportunity to comment on the Environmental Study Report (ESR). Hard copies of the report exceeding 400 pages (including appendices) can be read at the Parkdale, College-Shaw, and Fort York Libraries, while an online version is also available at http://www.toronto.ca/westrailpath. The West Toronto Railpath is a multi-use path popular with west-end residents which goes along the Kitchener GO corridor from Cariboo Street to the current terminus of Dundas Street West. This first phase was completed in 2008 and won an urban design award in 2011.

Existing West Toronto Railpath next to Kitchener GO Line

Twelve Days of Bicycles - Ten Quaxers Quaxing

Upon reading this title, some of you may wonder what the duck is “quaxing” or if I had suddenly become loony. First off, quaxing has nothing to do with duck sounds. Instead, the term was coined in response to a gaffe committed by Auckland city councillor Dick Quax. During a Twitter exchange with a local cyclist last year, Quax ridiculed the idea of shopping by bike or public transit, which prompted cyclists to tweet pictures using the #quaxing hashtag to prove cars aren’t necessary to shop. This term has since become popular with cyclists around the world, including in Toronto.[1]

Twelve Days of Bicycles - Nine Lives A Saving

If you ask any person how many road fatalities are acceptable, chances are he/she will mention zero. Unfortunately, road fatalities are a common occurrence in which 38 pedestrians (including one on December 30) and four cyclists were killed in the City of Toronto this year alone. A recent report by the Pembina Institute called “Cycle Cities” cited Toronto had the highest cycling crash rate among five major Canadian cities (five per 100,000). In June, three cycling deaths over a two week period prompted Cycle Toronto to hold the city’s first “die-in” where over 100 cyclists lied down with their bikes at Nathan Phillips Square.[1] The following asks were made at the “die-in”: