Since 2024, Councillor Lily Cheng and Peter Low have hosted a community bike ride from Willowdale to Downtown. While the prior two rides were held in September, this year’s ride was moved to May because this year is an election year. This morning, about 125 cyclists gathered at Avondale Park, while Helen and Mozzie came along as well.
Since we arrived early, Mozzie got his obligatory fetch time.
As with past years, Bike Share Toronto brought over some bikes which participants could reserve ahead of time.
Councillor Cheng welcomes everyone and reminds people they will be riding through different kinds of cycling infrastructure. She acknowledged Chief Planner Jason Thorne was in attendance.
Albert Koehl of Community Bikeways – which provide ride marshals – gave a safety talk including ensuring we had air in our tires.
Lisa Stokes – left – came from Brampton with Cindy to help document today’s ride. You can read her blog post here.
Peter Low – who was recently named Advocate of the Year by Community Bikeways and a Community Champion by Councillor Cheng – mentioned the ride planning started back in January and encouraged people to ride the ziplines at Biidaasige Park.
Jesse Han of North York Cycles invited people to attend the group’s weekly social rides on Tuesday evenings and the longer Sunday morning rides.
Off we go!
Going under the 401 was a bit of a bottleneck. Helen mentioned they should add a light at the ramp on the other side of this underpass, while I felt the sidewalk needed to be made wider.
Going through some side streets.
Crossing Bayview Avenue. You can see Jason Thorne on the right.
A quick stop by a school to regroup.
Crossing Leslie Street.
After going through the plaza, we ended up underneath York Mills Road just before starting the Don Mills Trail.
Riding along the Don Mills Trail.
The path connecting the Don Mills Trail to Leslie Street is very narrow. For some stupid reason, Google Maps doesn’t allow you to map cycling directions through this path.
Riding down Leslie to Eglinton. Someone with an adapted electric trike had two dogs on his lap.
Going down the switchback from Eglinton to the West Don Trail.
Going through one of two Ontario Line construction zones.
Stopped at E.T. Seton Park for a bathroom break. And some more fetching for Mozzie. 🐩
Time for a group photo.
The intersection between the Lower Don and West Don Trails is another bottleneck.
A quick regroup before going down the Lower Don.
On the Lower Don Trail just before Pottery Road.
Riding along Bayview Avenue.
Helen, Mozzie, and I left the ride when it arrived at the Evergreen Brickworks. While we did feel some raindrops on the way, the rain got heavy after we left. I was informed by Peter that the ride ended at the Distillery District instead because of it.
Thanks Peter and Councillor Cheng’s office for putting together today’s ride, to Community Bikeways for keeping us safe, and to the 125 of you who made it out. Hopefully you get more opportunities to ride this summer! 😊
Janet Joy Wilson shared a reel about the ride on her Instagram.
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