With last year’s “Ride The Meadoway” being one of my favourite rides in Scarborough, I was thrilled to find out it was happening again this year! This year’s occasion also gave an excuse to check out the newest Meadoway segment from Military Trail to Morningside, as well as the Marcos to Midland segment under construction. This morning, I joined about 60 people who started at Wexford Hydro Park while a few others joined in afterwards.
As Bike Month continues to pedal along, the City of Toronto has recently launched public consultations for three projects. Two of them are in Scarborough; those being the Alton Towers and Malvern neighbourhood connections. The third is a Phase 2 consultation for the Leaside Bridge to Danforth Avenue Cycling Connections. Let’s review these projects, as well as one recent installation I came across yesterday.
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| Neighbourhood greenway option for Ingleton Boulevard (via City of Toronto) |
The month of April brought some good news for Toronto’s cycling community with Justice Paul Schabas having granted an injunction until he can decide on Cycle Toronto’s Charter challenge against the bike lane removal aspects of Bill 212. While that decision may not be made for another few months, there are several public consultations which we need to get involved with. Let’s round them up here! 😊
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| The Leaside-Danforth public consultation from March 2024 |
This morning, about 75 people took part in “Ride the Meadoway” which was hosted by Toronto East Cyclists, Scarborough Cycles, and Regenesis Cycle UTSC. Bike Share Toronto provided some bikes for those who needed them, while Patty Time served some Jamaican beef patties and vegetarian samosas. Let’s reflect on what happened during the ride.
The last time I visited Bloor Street in Etobicoke was during a bike count with Community Bikeways (TCBC) which also happened to be the first day of bike lane construction from Aberfoyle to Resurrection. Construction has largely wrapped up since then including the installation of barriers, so I thought I would use my day off work to join TCBC’s “Koffee on the Kingsway” at Café de Flore and check out the newly installed bike lanes.
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.
On March 16, I visited the southern half of the East Don Trail from the Forks of the Don to a dead end where a tunnel will be installed under the Richmond Hill GO line. Being curious to find out what the other side is like – as well as how it will connect with The Meadoway – I did a 56-kilometre ride yesterday to check the northern half of the East Don Trail, as well as newest segment of The Meadoway that opened last fall.
All right, folks! We need to talk about Scarborough’s dangerous streets.
On Sunday, February 11, a memorial ride was held for a 66-year-old female cyclist killed at Brimley & McNicoll. If that wasn’t bad enough, another crash in Scarborough this month killed a 47-year-old male cyclist on Monday near Birchmount & St. Clair. While it didn’t happen right on Birchmount – which had bike lanes removed in 2011 – the consequences of refusing to build safe streets still apply across Scarborough. Finally, despite the Danforth-Kingston complete street being part of the 2022-24 Bike Plan, there still has not been a public consultation held which had been delayed due in part to last year’s by-elections for Mayor and for Council in Scarborough Southwest.
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| Memorial ride held at Brimley & McNicoll on Sunday, February 11 |
Unfortunately, it seems Toronto can’t get by a single year without a cyclist getting killed. On Monday, January 30, a woman in her 60’s was struck by a driver at Brimley & McNicoll and died of her injuries on Saturday, February 3. Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists hosted a memorial ride for the fallen cyclist earlier today which started at Kennedy Station.
On Monday, February 12, the City of Toronto will be hosting a public consultation regarding the Ellesmere Complete Street project which is planned to start construction in 2026 from Orton Park to Kingston Roads. While I normally support complete streets which are badly needed in Scarborough, this project has left me with some concerns. Especially since Metrolinx had already prepared designs for the Durham-Scarborough BRT along the same corridor. Let’s look at how the two projects compare.
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| Overview of the Ellesmere Complete Street project (via City of Toronto) |
During my conversation with Nancy Smith Lea in late August, she brought up TCAT’s push for community bike hubs to expand cycling culture beyond downtown. One of these programs – Scarborough Cycles – was established in 2015 and now operates three bike hubs at AccessPoint on Danforth, Birchmount Bluffs Neighbourhood Centre, and at 3939 Lawrence Ave E in partnership with Toronto Community Housing. I spoke with Marvin Macaraig to learn more about Scarborough Cycles and some of the advocacy happening in Scarborough.
After marking ten years earlier this year, this post marks the 300th on my Two Wheeled Politics blog! 😊 To mark this milestone, I will write about an almost 80 kilometre trip I did on Thursday, September 28 from Oshawa to Downtown Toronto for a day off work.
Happy Victoria Day!
Back in November 2017, I wrote about the City’s plans to implement an eastern extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT from Kennedy Station to UTSC and eventually to Malvern Town Centre. At the time, I argued it could become a game changer for cycling in Scarborough given the light rail line would also see bike lanes brought deep into Scarborough. Thanks to Hafeez Alavi, I was informed the City will be restarting consultations for the project on May 30, June 1, and June 7. Let’s find out what has changed since then.
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| Map of Eglinton East LRT and focus areas (all images are via the City of Toronto unless otherwise mentioned) |
With today’s nice weather and a day off work, I went for a ride around Scarborough. It was a brutal 90 kilometre trek with 681 metres of elevation gain that took me to the northeastern part of the City and back. It helped give me a feel for what is needed to complete a recreational loop east of Victoria Park.
Back in July, I wrote about the upcoming bike plan update in Spacing to explore whether it would help Toronto build back better. While the overall trend would maintain last year’s annual pace of over 30 kilometres (if built), some major arterials were listed as studies at the time. Now that the final report has been released and will be debated at next Thursday’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee meeting, it’s time to look at what has changed since then and what needs to be done.
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| Celebrating the opening of the Esplanade-Mill bikeway (Phase 1) |
Last month, the City of Toronto made a mistake by removing the Brimley bike lanes within days of a public meeting deceivingly labelled as “improving Toronto’s cycling network”. Had the Brimley bike lanes been kept and extended, there is another project which could have provided a connection opportunity. It’s a project which could provide an intercity cycling connection between Toronto and Durham Region while also improving transit in the area.
That project is the Durham – Scarborough BRT.
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| A typical street layout for the Durham - Scarborough BRT (via Metrolinx) |
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.
This week has been a depressing one in the City of Toronto as Ontario continues to set new records for daily COVID-19 cases. A bike lane has been removed, winter conditions have caused traffic chaos, and another person biking was killed. It’s time to do a round up of these events.
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| Bike lane symbols scrubbed off Brimley - via Scarborough Cycles |
Back in late May, I wrote about the need to expand cycling in Scarborough, Etobicoke, and North York and suggested roughly 150 kilometres of routes that would be needed to build a robust cycling grid in Toronto. A lot has happened since then including the building of almost 40 kilometres of bike lanes – the largest expansion in Toronto’s history – and some new proposals issued by the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition (which I am part of). Here is a review of what has been built under ActiveTO, the TCBC proposals, and which gaps remain to be filled.
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| Bayview from Rosedale Valley to River was one of this year's ActiveTO installations |
One part of Toronto I haven’t biked around as much is Scarborough. Sure, I biked to my old job in Pickering from Rouge Hill GO station, but only two kilometres of that trip is in Scarborough. As for longer treks, I did bike along the Gatineau Hydro Corridor and got to the Scarborough Bluffs once each. Yesterday, I joined the Toronto East Cyclists for a ride along the North Scarborough Green Loop while also checking the recently installed Brimley ActiveTO lanes.
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| Janet Joy and Peter - along with the Toronto East Cyclists - on the Huntingwood bike lanes |
