3rd Annual Willowdale Community Bike Ride

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.

Cycling Good Cheer Along Yonge

About 30 to 40 people took part in Sunday’s 2nd Annual Cycling Good Cheer ride which started at Hendon Park in North York (a.k.a. the North Pole 😉) and ended at City Hall using Yonge Street, Bloor Street, and University Avenue. Janet Joy Wilson – a fellow founding member of the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition – put together the ride while Albert Koehl was Santa. Many of us had antlers attached to our helmets while some opted to decorate our bikes. It was great having lots of people honk and wave at us with approval.

For a proper recap, I encourage you to read Jun N’s blog post and watch this video from Heather’s and Pier’s Bromptoning blog. I will instead focus on three cycling mishaps which deserve lumps of coal, as well as some hope as 2022 nears.

REimagining Yonge Street

Last summer, I had the chance to bike the entire length of the Toronto portion of Yonge Street to make the case for bike lanes there. The resulting blog post lead to an article in Metro Toronto citing Yonge as the next cycling battleground. With an interim report for REimagining Yonge – which calls for the complete transformation of Yonge Street from Avondale to Bishop Avenues including bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and public realm improvements – coming to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday, May 9, a progress update is in order.

Yonge Street at Elmwood Avenue (North York Centre)

A Not So Yonge Cycling Idea

Cycle Toronto collecting signatures at Mel Lastman Square

While Cycle Toronto only launched their Yonge Loves Bikes pledge this month and the earliest Bells on Yonge ride happened in 2012, the idea of bike lanes on Yonge Street goes back even further. Back in 1977, when bike lanes on Bloor Street were first considered (but not recommended), the same Barton-Aschmann report recommended Yonge as a north-south spine route from Wellesley to Queen Streets with eventual extensions to Queens Quay to the south and the Toronto Reference Library (at Church Street) to the north. The report cited the high level of retail and commercial activity, the lack of on-street parking, the presence of the Yonge subway line, and the high number of collisions involving cyclists as key reasons for recommending Yonge Street. A feeder route was also proposed on Gould Street to connect with Ryerson University.