Documenting Toronto Cycling with Jun Nogami

If you participated in certain cycling events in Toronto, chances are you have seen a blog post about them as soon as an hour after the event finished. This blog called “Biking in a Big City” has been around for thirteen years which covered a fair number of advocacy events, gear reviews, long distance rides, and the World Human Powered Speed Challenge. I spoke with the blog’s author – Jun Nogami – to learn more about what first inspired him to start the bike blog and some of the things he has learned over the years.

October 2023 Consultations and Construction

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

With summer now over, there are two public consultations coming up for the Portland – Dan Leckie Cycling Connections and the Avenue Road Study. I will discuss these projects in greater detail, as well as some recent site visits on Palmerston, College, and Bloor.

All photos for Portland - Dan Leckie and Avenue Road are from the City of Toronto unless otherwise stated

What a Difference Ten Years Makes

With my Two Wheeled Politics blog marking ten years next month, a reflection is warranted. Many of us Toronto road safety advocates like to claim our city is not doing enough for cycling – which underscores the need for us to vote in the June 26 mayoral by-election – but we have come a long way over the past decade. Let’s take a walk down memory lane to understand what has changed.

Front view of 2012 Toronto Cycling Map

Will the Fourth Time be Mississauga’s Bloor Charm?

Back in March, there was a sense of momentum for getting bike lanes on Bloor in Mississauga. The third public meeting for the Bloor Street Integrated Project saw more than 100 people take part, while 80 to 100 people from Toronto and Mississauga rode along Bloor to show support for bike lanes on both sides of Etobicoke Creek. Given yet another public meeting was held on Tuesday, November 29 while I was on vacation in Morocco, it’s time to offer a quick recap of what had happened since March.

Alternative #5 was presented at the third public meeting for Bloor Street in March 2022

May 2022 Cycling Consultation Catchup

As if January and February were not busy enough for cycling related public consultations, the City of Toronto has announced at least five more for May with the possibility of another two. A record for this city, perhaps? 😉 These include the Martin Grove Bikeway, Bloor Street Upgrades, Huntingwood Drive Upgrades, Mid Humber Gap, and Gerrard East Complete Street. Let’s see what the consultation materials have to offer and suggest some improvements.

Rendering of Martin Grove multi-use path (via City of Toronto)

Mississauga Momentum for Bloor Bike Lanes

Earlier in March, I reported on the fight Mississauga advocates had on their hands regarding getting bike lanes installed on their part of Bloor; most notably the ridiculous complaints over charter rights. There has been a renewed sense of momentum since then with Mississauga’s third community meeting on Wednesday, March 9 and Sunday’s Ride for Bike Lanes on Bloor. Let’s recap these recent developments, as well as introduce the group Mississauga Cycling Now.

Mississauga’s Bloor Bike Lane Fight

While the City of Toronto’s latest bike plan called for extending the Bloor bike lanes west from Runnymede to Six Points (at Kipling) by 2024, Mississauga has their own Bloor bike lane fight through the Bloor Street Integrated Project. During the January 19, 2022 city council meeting, the City of Mississauga opted to hold a third community meeting on March 9, 2022 given opposition to the project; most notably from the Applewood Hills & Heights Residents’ Association and their petition which got 130 signatures. I heard of many arguments against bike lanes over the years of fighting for bike lanes on Bloor in Toronto, but none were as ridiculous as that about bike lanes violating charter rights brought up by Athinda Tagidou of the AHHRA during the city council meeting. An argument which made the top twelve weird things on Cracked.

Ridicule to the charter right argument was picked up by Cracked

Missed Opportunity for Bloor?

Last month, Toronto City Council approved extending the Bloor bike lanes from Runnymede to Six Points by 2024 as part of the 2022-24 Cycling Implementation Plan. Upon rereading the plan earlier this week, I came across a section called “Secondary Priority for Consideration” which listed several projects that didn’t make the cut; but could be considered should other projects get deferred or staff capacity is increased. One of these projects is Bloor Street from Etobicoke Creek to the bridge crossing Highway 427 with a note saying it has near-term road work planned which couldn’t be deferred.

Call for Action RE Latest Bloor Gap Delay

On October 13, 2021, the City of Toronto released a construction update for the Bloor Street West bridge rehabilitation claiming the completion date has been delayed from December 2021 to June 2022. This delay effectively means the Bloor bike lane gap which currently exists there between Symington and Dundas will have been left unfilled for two years since the rest of the Bloor bike lane extension was installed from Shaw to Runnymede.

Bloor at Symington looking west towards the bike lane gap

It is time to call out Councillors Gord Perks and Ana Bailao – as well as Mayor John Tory – for the City’s poor handling of this critical gap in Toronto’s bikeway network. A tragedy back in August which saw 18-year-old Miguel Joshua Escanan prompted Toronto City Council to approve a motion to expedite work on a complete street on Avenue Road, as well as examine cyclist safety in construction zones. We cannot wait for another cyclist to get killed by that area to force action in this case or other safety hazards across the city.

This ridiculously short addition to the Bloor bike lane east of Dundas spotted in June is not enough

Please see below an e-mail I sent, though I encourage you to come up with your own submissions.

One Month with the Cargo Bike

Last month, we got our Muli Muskel cargo bike mainly to transport Mozzie and our groceries. The cargo bike has seen a fair bit of action since then with this past weekend’s cargo bike meetup being the most recent ride. It’s time to do a recap to demonstrate how life changing cargo bikes can be.

Action Alert RE Yesterday’s Avenue and Bloor Tragedy

Yesterday at 6:30 PM, 18-year-old Miguel Joshua Escana was killed by a cement truck driver while biking on Avenue Road immediately north of Bloor Street. While a ghost bike memorial ride will be held on Wednesday, August 25 and my condolences go to the family of the fallen cyclist, I would like to issue an urgent call to action. Especially considering the collision happened on a road which was supposed to get the ActiveTO treatment including protected bike lanes, but was never done.

Collision scene at Avenue and Bloor on August 18, 2021 (Via Toronto Police Operations)

Please e-mail Mayor Tory and the ActiveTO team with all 25 councillors blind copied urging them to not just implement the Avenue Road ActiveTO project from Bloor to Davenport now, but also accelerate bike lane installations across the city and make last year’s ActiveTO projects permanent. Below is the e-mail I sent yesterday, though I encourage you to come up with your own submissions.

June 2021 Bloor Update

Last summer was a game changer for Bloor-Danforth with the Bloor bike lanes permanently extended west from Shaw to Runnymede, as well as the temporary installation of ActiveTO corridors along Danforth (from Broadview to Dawes) and the Sherbourne to Avenue gap. However, a small gap remains under the West Toronto Railpath while Toronto City Council is expected to decide the fate of the temporary parts of Bloor-Danforth this fall. With this in mind, the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition is already pushing for a further western extension from Runnymede to Six Points and along Dundas to The East Mall.

Martin Reis (left) and volunteers from the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition preparing to deliver postcards calling for the extension of the Bloor bike lanes to Six Points

Finishing the Job on Bloor

The past twelve months have seen real progress with cycling on Toronto’s main arterials. Not only is there now the 15 kilometre Bloor-Danforth corridor, but City Council approved a study for bike lanes on Yonge in Midtown and Transform Yonge in North York last fall. Phase one of yongeTOmorrow downtown also passed at the infrastructure and Environment Committee recently and will come to City Council on February 2. With the future of Yonge being all but locked in, it’s time to focus on Etobicoke.

Bloor Street at the Humber River looking west towards Etobicoke

An Unprecedented Pandemic Year

When 2020 started, we had just returned from our vacation in Turkey and Spain. It was a vacation rich in history, good places to hike, delicious tapas, and even some cycling for good measure. At that time, we were keen to travel again and COVID-19 had yet to register on our radar. Once the pandemic ramped up in mid-March, it seemed everything we took for granted was thrown out the window.

Audit Ride Around Parkdale-High Park

About ten people from Parkdale High Park Bikes took part in an audit ride on Sunday along with Nicholas from Councillor Ana Bailao’s office. The aim was to inspect the recently installed Bloor bike lane extension and other neighbourhood hotspots such as Brock-Florence, Seaforth, Macdonnell, and the Lansdowne-College-Dundas triangle. Fellow blogger Jun wrote his take here.

Approaching Fifteen Kilometres of Glory

This summer in Toronto has seen bike lanes installed at an unprecedented rate including the ongoing establishment of a fifteen kilometre continuous east-west cycling corridor along Bloor-Danforth. This has been a dream decades in the making and one poised to become a game changer for cycling in this city. On Friday afternoon, I had the chance to check out some of the progress.

June 2020 ActiveTO Update

Earlier in June, I saw the first ActiveTO installations set up along Dundas East one week after being approved by City Council. The City has continued to roll out new bike lanes with University Avenue from Adelaide to Bloor and Bloor Street from Avenue to Sherbourne being the latest additions. Yesterday, I biked a loop consisting of Shaw, Bloor, Sherbourne, and Richmond Streets to check out the progress.

Toronto Needs an ActiveTO Phase 2

Toronto City Council approved 25 km of new bike lanes at their May 28 virtual meeting as part of ActiveTO, including the completion of a 15 km continuous bikeway across Bloor-Danforth from Runnymede to Dawes. It was a victory more than 40 years in the making with groups such as Take The Tooker, Bells on Bloor, Bells on Danforth, Cycle Toronto, and the David Suzuki Foundation all contributing to this moment. The aim is to install these bike lanes within weeks with some projects such as Dundas East from Broadview to Sackville already being recently completed. However, there are several reasons why Toronto needs an ActiveTO Phase 2 as soon as possible.

The recently installed Dundas East cycle tracks are part of the 25 km approved under ActiveTO

A First Look at ActiveTO

A week following the announcement of CurbTO to address pedestrian hotspots and a City Council meeting that approved measures to look into providing space for people, Toronto finally announced a plan to do so under the ActiveTO banner. ActiveTO aims to create over 50 kilometres of quiet streets, close major roads on weekends, and accelerate the bike plan. The details of the quiet streets and road closures were announced on Thursday, May 14, but nothing was announced for bike lanes yet. Yesterday, Helen and I biked along Lake Shore Boulevard, which closed all eastbound traffic lanes from Windermere Avenue to Stadium Road for the long weekend.

What's Next for #streets4peopleTO?

The month of April saw Torontonians ramp up their calls for Mayor John Tory, Toronto City Council, and Toronto Public Health to create #streets4peopleTO as cities across Canada and the world have done. While the City had consistently resisted this move and became a national outlier, there has been a gradual shift in attitude while some other improvements have been made. Let’s review what has happened and celebrate the 4th anniversary of the Bloor bike lanes being approved by city council.