Second Annual Willowdale Community Ride

Last year, fellow cyclist Peter Low organized the first Willowdale Community Ride with Councillor Lily Cheng. However, I couldn’t make it since Helen and I were on vacation in Uzbekistan at the time, though you can check this great recap from fellow bike blogger Lisa Stokes from Brampton. Today marked the second time Peter and Lily put together this ride which almost 100 people made it out for. A testament to show there indeed is demand for cycling in North York even with the lack of cycling infrastructure! 😉

Rally and Ride for Eglinton

Last month, Toronto’s cycling community learned the City of Toronto would be resurfacing Eglinton Avenue without the promised bike lanes given the Eglinton Crosstown LRT continues to be faced with delays. This prompted me to prepare this action alert, while Cycle Toronto issued their own along with organizing tonight’s “Rally and Ride for Eglinton” which almost 100 people attended.

July 2025 Ride The Meadoway

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.

Bike Party July 2025

Advocating for complete streets can be a drag sometimes whether it’s Doug Ford’s anti bike lane Bill 212 or the astroturf groups that recently emerged against RapidTO. To counter this negativity, it’s always good to have rave rides consisting of cool lights, music, and dance moves! Toronto Cruisers hosts smaller scale rave rides on Wednesday nights while Neon Riders typically hosts theirs on Thursday nights. The annual Bike Rave usually happens in August, but a similar ride called “Bike Party” has emerged in recent years. Last night, I joined almost 500 riders for the July 2025 edition of Bike Party!

TCBC 5th Anniversary Ride to the Brickworks

Last month marked five years since the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition was started by Albert Koehl, Janet Joy Wilson, and I; among others. To help mark the anniversary and Bike Month, Jessie Ye and Janet Joy organized a ride from AccessPoint on Danforth to the Evergreen Brickworks along with Marvin of Scarborough Cycles (and Access Alliance) and Regenesis. About thirty people took part.

A Soggy March Critical Mass

While Cycle Toronto’s charter challenge against Bill 212 is less than three weeks away and their injunction request was denied earlier this month, Toronto’s cycling community continues to put pressure on the Ford government to scrap their bike lane removal plans for Bloor, Yonge, and University. To follow up on last week’s direct action by Fridays for Future Toronto, a Critical Mass ride was held last night. Not even the rain could stop more than two hundred people from attending.

2025 (Truly) Coldest Day of the Year Ride

Originally, Cycle Toronto was planning to host their annual winter cycling tradition – the Coldest Day of the Year Ride – on Saturday, February 15. However, the heavy snow that weekend and uncleared bike lanes at the time made them postpone the ride to today. This year’s ride lived up to its name with -8’C temperatures unlike in past years which saw about 70 people brave the cold from Perth Avenue Parkette to Michael Power Park in Etobicoke.

Pre-Election Brampton Bill 212 Rally

Back on October 23, a group from Bike Brampton led by David Laing attended the Rally and Ride for Road Safety at Queen’s Park; some of whom biked all the way from Brampton. To return the favour, Jess Spieker of Friends & Families for Safe Streets organized a group to take the GO Train to Brampton yesterday for Bike Brampton’s delivery of a ghost bike at Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office on Hurontario Street.

New Year’s Day Ride 2025 + Leslie Lookout

Happy New Year, #BikeTO! Hope 2025 has gotten off to a good start for you. With today being 4’C with some light drizzle in the morning which tapered off later, I went to the 13th Annual New Year’s Day Ride hosted by Alex which started at Yonge & Queen’s Quay. It was my second New Year's Day ride after last year’s one.

Last Critical Mass Ride of 2024!

Yesterday, about 30 people took part in the last Critical Mass ride of 2024. A reasonable turnout considering the Holidays, while the 2’C temperatures and lack of precipitation made for great riding weather. Here’s a picture of the group at the start of the ride.

Your December 2024 #BikeTO Roundup

It’s hard to believe, but another year is almost over, and it’s been quite the rollercoaster with the Bill 212 fiasco and all. With two more weeks to go, a lot has popped up which warrants a roundup post of its own. This includes a couple of updates regarding Bill 212, the East Don Trail, the Ellesmere Complete Street project, and some upcoming group rides. Let’s dive in to see what December 2024 has to offer!

A banner ridiculing Doug Ford's war on bike lanes found over the Gardiner (via Martin Reis)

Fridays for Future & Cycling Good Cheer

This weekend saw two cycling events take place in Toronto and the two atmospheres couldn’t be any different with one being a protest ride and the other being a festive one. Let’s recap what happened during these two events.

Fight for Bikes Protest at Christie Pits

Earlier today, Zev and Eva – two University of Toronto students who started “Fight for Bikes” organized a protest against Bill 212 at Christie Pits Park. The turnout was incredible with some claiming there were at least 1,500 which would make it even larger than the September 23 rally at Queen’s Park!

Rally and Ride for Road Safety

Queen’s Park was back in session on Monday after an extended holiday and the first order of business was Bill 212 called “The Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act”. This bill would require municipalities to get provincial approval for bike lanes that remove traffic lanes – except for those tendered and started construction once the bill takes effect – as well as review existing bike lanes. To make matters worse, Premier Doug Ford mentioned he plans to remove existing bike lanes on Bloor, University, and Yonge. Hundreds of people came out yesterday in response to this irresponsible (and unprecedented) legislation which you can submit comments on until Wednesday, November 20.

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.

Earth Day Ride to Eglinton + Beltline Riding

Earlier today, Cycle Toronto’s Midtown ward group hosted their Earth Day ride which about 20 people attended. The ride started at Davisville station and rolled along Yonge, Davenport, and Winona before arriving at Ben Nobleman Par where Cycle Toronto had an engagement tent to promote the eglintonTOday project ahead of the May 2 IEC meeting.

2024 Coldest Day of the Year Ride

One of my favourite things to do during the winter months is to take part in Cycle Toronto’s “Coldest Day of the Year” Ride; an event aimed to promote winter cycling. However, this year’s event was unusually mild with temperatures around 10’C which can be very worrying from a climate change perspective. About 150 to 200 people joined us at Tom Riley Park to ride the recently extend Bloor bike lanes east to Christie Pits Park, which was almost as many as last November’s Bloor bike lane rally.

New Year's Day 2024 Group Ride

Happy New Year, fellow cyclists! Last year, Jun wrote about a New Year’s Day group ride that Alex put together which involves riding from Queen & Logan to the Tommy Thompson Park lighthouse for a group shot. Since I wanted to step up my bike riding game for 2024, I decided to join this year’s group ride – the 12th time Alex organized this – and check some infrastructure in the Port Lands thanks to Brian Tao.

Bloor Bike Lanes Rally in Etobicoke

Back in September, the City of Toronto started installing the Bloor West Complete Street Extension from Runnymede to Aberfoyle, which will be further extended to Six Points next year. Community Bikeways (TCBC) hosted a celebration ride on Sunday, October 22 – you can read Jun N’s post here – which Councillor Amber Morley attended. However, there has been some backlash with over 10,000 people signing a petition opposing them and Ontario Premier Doug Ford calling for their removal; claiming only one cyclist bikes on them annually. Given this backlash, Community Bikeways, The Biking Lawyer, and other road safety advocates organized today’s Bloor Bike Lanes Rally which brought in 250 to 300 riders.

Photo from TCBC's Bloor West Celebration Ride

Scarborough Cycles with Marvin Macaraig

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.