Second Annual Willowdale Community Ride

Last year, fellow cyclist Peter Low organized the first Willowdale Community Ride with Councillor Lily Cheng. However, I couldn’t make it since Helen and I were on vacation in Uzbekistan at the time, though you can check this great recap from fellow bike blogger Lisa Stokes from Brampton. Today marked the second time Peter and Lily put together this ride which almost 100 people made it out for. A testament to show there indeed is demand for cycling in North York even with the lack of cycling infrastructure! 😉

A decent crowd was there by the time I got to Avondale Park. Councillor Lily Cheng’s tent (left) had some bike bells, copies of her newsletter, and Cycle Toronto’s cycling handbook in English, Mandarin, and Farsi.

Councillor Cheng gave a shout out to some people involved with organizing the event including Monica (behind Lily in the picture below) with her office.

Alison Stewart – Toronto’s Bicycle Mayor – promoted the Femmes and Friends’ World Car Free Day event happening on Monday, September 22 at 5:30 PM.

Wesley DaSilva spoke on behalf of Bike Share Toronto which will have 1000 stations in all 25 wards by the end of this year. He noted over 200,000 rides took place on the Toronto Islands alone during the first five months of operation. They provided some bikes for this event.

Jesse Han started North York Cycles earlier this year which has been hosting rides on Tuesday evenings and Sunday mornings. They have a Facebook group which cyclists in North York are encouraged to join.

Albert Koehl of Community Bikeways – which provided twelve marshals for the ride – highlighted some safety rules including Peter’s Principle of not riding ahead of Peter.

Here’s Peter in the left of this photo along with Wesley, Alison, Lily, and Albert.

Lining up to start the ride.

The first part of the ride required us to use the sidewalk to go under Highway 401. A redesign of the Yonge-Highway 401 interchange is badly needed to make it safer for people who bike.

The first part of the ride involved a lot of zig-zagging through residential streets. There were also a fair number of kids out with us.

A bit of bunching occurred at the bottom of the hill on Toba Drive at Legacy Court.

A long queue of cyclists on Fifeshire Road at Knollwood Street.

Waiting to cross Bayview Avenue.

Jesse took this group photo at Étienne Brulé Secondary School where we stopped to regroup and have some water.

After Leslie Street, we went through some alleys near Leslie and York Mills to get to the Don Mills Trail.

A group shot under the York Mills bridge before starting the Don Mills Trail.

On the Don Mills Trail.

A “Trail Dead End 900M” sign appears at Overland Drive.

However, you can still get to Leslie Street through this narrow path next to the OTT building.

We had to walk our bikes a short block to the traffic light next to the fire station.

Riding down Leslie to Eglinton. A street which badly needs bike lanes or a multi-use path to complete the connection between the Don Mills and West Don Trails.

Down the switchback trail from Eglinton to the West Don Trail.

Some Ontario Line construction prompted us to walk our bikes under some scaffolding.

A brief water and bathroom break just north of Overlea.

This crossing is just south of the junction between the West Don Trail and the new Lower Don Trail leading up to Don Mills Road.

Crossing Pottery Road.

We then took Bayview to the Evergreen Brickworks for a half hour break for some food at the farmers market. I got some Sri Lankan mutton and vegetable rolls from Fathima’s Kitchen with a chai latté.

Passing by the Prince Edward (or Bloor) Viaduct.

Many riders fell behind, so we stopped at Corktown Common to regroup. I saw at least one person with a bike share bike had a flat tire on the way to Corktown Common.

We then took Esplanade-Mill to David Crombie Park where the ride ended; making the ride 25 km total from Willowdale to Downtown.

Councillor Cheng thanked everyone for attending and asked who wanted to do another ride next spring which many were interested. Albert led a group to Union Station while I went up Sherbourne.

Thanks Peter Low, Councillor Cheng, Community Bikeways, the ride marshals, and to the almost 100 of you who rode with us today. I will close off the post with this video compilation.