May 2024 Danforth-Kingston 4 All Ride

This morning, about 100 people made it out for today’s Danforth-Kingston 4 All ride in support of a safer Danforth Avenue and Kingston Road in Scarborough. It was a short four-kilometre slow roll from East Lynn Park to Scotia Parkette east of Warden Avenue. It was the first ride held in support of bike lanes on Danforth since COVID-19 pandemic and was made more urgent given the Danforth-Kingston project – originally proposed for the 2022-24 Bike Plan – was recycled into the one for 2025-27.

Here’s a photo of the ride when I first got to East Lynn Park.

Making Danforth and Kingston Safe for Everyone

Last summer, Bells on Kingston was formed to help build support for extending the Danforth bike lanes into Scarborough and along Kingston Road. They hosted a few group rides including feeder rides to Community Bikeways’ “Light Up Toronto” road safety rally on October 2 and “Cycling Good Cheer” ride on December 18. With stakeholder consultations under way and public consultations anticipated for this spring – along with those for Bloor West – it’s time to take the next step in establishing a 30-kilometre bikeway from Kipling Avenue to Scarborough Golf Club Road. The Danforth-Kingston Complete Street is expected to be done in two phases; first to St. Clair Avenue East and then to Scarborough Golf Club Road.

Phasing of Danforth-Kingston Complete Street Project (via City of Toronto)

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

Overhauling Toronto’s Urban Highway Interchanges

Last year, the City of Toronto substantially completed the reconfiguration of Six Points; one of the City’s worst intersections for people walking or cycling. The spaghetti junction was replaced with three at-grade crossings for Bloor, Dundas, and Kipling including protected bike lanes, proper sidewalks, and streetscaping improvements. However, there are several other overbuilt urban highway interchanges which could use similarly radical interventions.

Dundas at Royal York

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.

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.

Dawdling Along on Danforth

The last week in January saw two public meetings for the Bloor bike lane extension to Runnymede and one for the Danforth Study. The feeling I got after pulling a double header on Monday, January 27 was the two meetings couldn’t have felt more different though turnout was high at both. The Bloor meeting felt very optimistic with many participants feeling the proposed design was very good, though the intersection at Bloor and Keele needs a rethink. Fellow Toronto bike blogger Jun provided an excellent breakdown of what is proposed for the Bloor extension.

Hundreds of people attended the second Danforth Study meeting

The Danforth Study meeting – the second in the process – was more respectful without the shouting from a few bike lane opponents and the lack of a presentation, though there was still more opposition to bike lanes compared to the Bloor meeting. Instead, a bunch of panels from the three different studies – planning, retail, and complete streets – were put up including the feedback collected from the first meeting held in November. The feedback cited strong support for complete streets and pilot bike lanes, but that’s where the good news stops.

The Value of Tactical Urbanism

For those who aren’t already aware, the term “tactical urbanism” refers to the use of temporary, low cost materials to help improve public spaces and neighbourhoods. The practice has been around for a long time, but this term has been popularized over the past few years including by Mikael Colville-Andersen during his TV series “The Life Sized City”. Last weekend, 8 80 Cities and Better Block took this concept to a whole new level by building a pop up complete street on Danforth Avenue known as 8 80 Streets Danforth; a first of its kind for Canada.

One Year Later – Where Are We On Protected Intersections?

Last year saw two cyclists killed in places where bike lanes intersected; those being Douglas Crosbie at Dundas and Jones in May and Dalia Chako at Bloor and St. George in June. Those fatalities helped spark new demands for Dutch style protected intersections from road safety advocates and the Toronto Star, while City Council approved ten “complete intersection” pilots. What happened on this file since then?

Cycle Toronto's protected intersection demo at Open Streets TO

What's The Holdup, Danforth Bike Lanes?

With much of the cycling community’s focus on extending the Bloor bike lanes west to High Park, we cannot forget the need to extend the bike lanes east along Danforth Avenue. A complete streets study was announced at last year’s Bells on Danforth ride, but WTF has happened since then? Turns out there’s a lot going on with the east end’s main street.

Bells on Danforth 2018

Forwards (and Backwards) on Bloor-Danforth

Last week, the Toronto and East York Community Council approved the recommendations of a planning study done for Danforth Avenue from Coxwell to Victoria Park Avenues, as well as supported expanding the study to cover the section from Broadview to Coxwell Avenues. The Danforth planning study was widely consulted which saw strong support for 7-8 storey mid-rise buildings, heritage conservation, and complete streets including wider sidewalks and protected bike lanes. All four speakers present expressed support for improved cycling facilities and the motion will go to City Council on July 23; the last meeting before October’s election. If approved, we will be one step closer to getting bike lanes on “The Danny”.

2018 Bells on Danforth