Bathurst Complete Street Project

Upon reviewing the North York map for the 2025-27 Bike Plan, one of the most significant projects in the pipeline is the Bathurst Complete Street from Bainbridge to Steeles Avenues. A cycling route which also shows up in York Region’s 2022 Transportation Master Plan. Ahead of the public consultation scheduled for Thursday, January 30 (6:00 – 8:30 PM) at Rockford Public School, let’s look at what this project has to offer, as well as what’s needed to further improve connectivity in the area.

Bathurst Complete Street rendering - Via City of Toronto

Trail Gaps Along the Don

While Toronto’s bikeway network has lots of gaps to fill, east-west connectivity is arguably much better than north-south. Especially north of St. Clair where continuous routes are limited to the Don River and Humber River trails, as well as the bike lanes on Royal York which go to Dixon Road. Back in August, I biked the Don River trail system to Sheppard Avenue to identify trail gaps and better understand how the trail system fits with the Lake to Lake Route.

Wayfinding signage used on the Lower Don Trail

A Taste of Vaughan

Back in mid-December, the TTC opened the Spadina subway extension with six additional stops including the first ones outside the (amalgamated) City of Toronto. While I biked on some backroads in York Region (Stouffville) in 2013 and 2014 to train for the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, they were rural roads which had no cycling infrastructure except for some paved shoulders. Helen and I explored the new subway stops and did a brief bike ride in Vaughan last weekend to take care of both things at once.