Let’s Show Solidarity with Transit Riders!

Earlier this month, I reflected on how Toronto’s car-brain issues go far beyond bikes including with the opposition to proposed RapidTO bus priority lanes on both Bathurst and Dufferin Streets. However, the anti RapidTO push has seen more short turns than the 504 King streetcar which deserve a follow up post on its own! Let’s look at how the current RapidTO proposals came to be, the evolving opposition, and what you can do to show solidarity with transit riders!

RapidTO on Eglinton Avenue East

Another Avenue Road Tragedy

This afternoon, an e-bike rider was killed at Avenue Road and Elgin Avenue; making it the fourth cyclist killed in Toronto this year. To add insult to injury, this isn’t the first time a cyclist was killed in an area where bike lanes were proposed but never acted upon. The same thing happened to Miguel Joshua Escanan in August 2021 at Avenue and Bloor. Let’s recap where things stand with Avenue Road, as well as demand action to get these safety improvements done urgently.

First Year on Council with Councillor Amber Morley

A year ago today, Toronto City Council experienced a big turnover with nine new councillors taking office which helped make City Council more progressive overall. Only one of these councillors – Amber Morley – was successful in defeating the incumbent and is now Deputy Mayor for Etobicoke. I spoke with Amber on Monday, November 6 to discuss her first year in office, the Bloor bike lanes, and other issues facing her community and city.

Councillor Amber Morley's swearing in photo (via Amber Morley)

Dissecting Toronto's By-Election Bikelash

One unfortunate recent development of Toronto’s mayoral by-election has been candidates and campaigns opposing bike lanes on arterial roads. As of this morning, I could identify at least six candidates and two campaigns that are opposed to them. As a public service, I will identify who these candidates are – so road safety advocates know not to support them – as well as put everything into perspective.

Opponents to the Midtown Yonge complete street on January 30, 2023 (via Jun Nogami)

My List of 2022 Toronto Candidate Endorsements

Over the past several weeks, I have been working with the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition (TCBC) to interview candidates for the purposes of endorsement, as well as ask them to sign onto our group’s three calls to action. Over 40 council candidates in 22 wards – plus two mayoral candidates – have signed on so far. We have since endorsed Gil Penalosa for Mayor and candidates in the following seven wards:

• Ward 2 (Etobicoke Centre) – Thomas Yanuziello
• Ward 3 (Etobicoke – Lakeshore) – Amber Morley
• Ward 5 (York South – Weston) – Chiara Padovani
• Ward 9 (Davenport) – Alejandra Bravo
• Ward 18 (Willowdale) – Markus O’Brien Fehr
• Ward 20 (Scarborough Southwest) – Kevin Rupasinghe
• Ward 23 (Scarborough North) – Jamaal Myers

In addition to these seven city council races, I would like to personally support candidates in additional wards, but will add a disclaimer they do not represent the views of TCBC.

Norm Di Pasquale's and Ausma Malik's joint campaign office in Kensington Market

Expanding the Micromobility Discussion

Last month, I got a BlueRev X8 e-scooter which convinced me on how e-scooters can be a great last mile solution and made getting to work a lot easier. However, Toronto upheld its ban on this micromobility solution back in May 2021. I would like to take a deeper dive into this topic and make the case for why Toronto should legalize the use of personally owned e-scooters. For this post, I would like to acknowledge Jamie Stuckless – owner of Stuckless Consulting and former Share The Road Executive Director – for contributing to this discussion.

Reviewing Toronto's Annual Cycling Report

For the past few years, Albert Koehl and I had been tracking Toronto’s bike lane installations to hold the City accountable to their 2016 Cycling Network Plan. While I didn’t prepare such a report for 2021 – instead focusing on the 2022-24 Near Term Plan – the City of Toronto recently released their 2021 Cycling Year in Review. This is a welcome development which will help improve accountability on the cycling file. I reviewed the report to see what it has in store and how it can be improved.

Toronto's 2021 Cycling Year in Review cover illustration shows a cargo bike

Diving Into Toronto’s 2022 – 2024 Bike Plan

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.

Celebrating the opening of the Esplanade-Mill bikeway (Phase 1)

WTF is up with the Railpath?

On Wednesday, February 26, the City of Toronto will be hosting a public meeting at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) to reveal the final design of the West Toronto Railpath extension to Abell Street. (pre-register here) Ahead of this meeting, I felt it was worth highlighting some good, bad, and ugly recent developments.

West Toronto Railpath extension rendering (via City of Toronto)

What's Next, Bike Share Toronto?

Back in 2013, Toronto held the “Feeling Congested” consultation series to reduce gridlock and included a recommendation to expand Toronto’s bike share to 5,000 bikes. Earlier this month, this goal has been fulfilled with the newest of the 465 stations being installed in the Junction, Bloor West Village, the Beaches, East York, and Midtown. With this goal achieved, where should Bike Share Toronto go next?

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

Copenhagen Does Toronto

Seeing a world-renowned planner like Copenhagenize's Mikael Colville-Andersen speak at last month’s Winter Cycling Congress is one thing. But twice in one month? That happened when he spoke in Toronto on February 27, 2017 during the Ontario Good Roads Association summit. Following Colville-Andersen’s “Getting Cycling Right” keynote was a panel he participated with Straphanger and Sacré Blues author Taras Grescoe and Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat. After Albert Koehl and Bart Hawkins Kreps wrote their takes, here’s mine covering some points that may have been missed.

Panel discussion with Colville-Andersen, Keesmaat & Grescoe

The Pedestrian Take on Road Safety

During the three years I have been blogging, I covered transportation matters associated with cycling, public transit, and driving. There has been one perspective that has not gotten the attention it deserved and is one we are all part of; that of a pedestrian. Maureen Coyle is on the steering committee for Walk Toronto and offered to provide this critical road safety perspective.

Stop! Hammertime! Cycling in Hamilton

While MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” is one of my favourite hip hop songs, the Hammer I am referring to is the City of Hamilton. This nickname is loosely based on its steelmaking heritage, though a Raise The Hammer article mentioned its origins were in the music and arts circles; only entering the mainstream over the past decade. Just as how Toronto rapper Drake coined “The 6ix” last year as Toronto’s new nickname.

On Sunday, May 22, I biked 80 kilometres from “The 6ix” to the Hammer for some Ride For Heart training. Here are some cycling observations I made along the way.

Hamilton skyline from York Boulevard

Public Works Politicking

Today, I used my day off work to make a deputation at the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC), which is responsible for Toronto's cycling infrastructure. For those working nine to five jobs (like me), taking time off is the only way to make a live deputation; leaving most people to resort to written submissions. The motion in question requested the City's Cycling Unit to study higher funding levels for the new bike plan ($20 million & $25 million) in order to fulfill Cycle Toronto's call for a Minimum Grid of 100 km of cycle tracks & 100 km of bicycle boulevards by 2018.

Cycle Toronto used these ribbons to spread the
word on the Minimum Grid campaign in 2014

Bike Plan from Cycle Toronto's Advocates Perspectives

On Tuesday, July 21, Cycle Toronto’s ward leaders were invited to City Hall to get updates on the bike plan consultation process, as well as to provide feedback on the draft plan unveiled in late June.

Draft downtown bike plan from survey (red/brown = new priorities)

Revisiting Cycle Commuting

In September 2012, I got back into cycling and joined Cycle Toronto. Since then, I used bicycles for most errands around town, long distance rides such as the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, and bike-transit trips to visit my dad. There was one type of ride I have not done since leaving Bishop’s University in 2008 and that is cycle commuting. With my work being in Pickering, I had always perceived driving to be the only realistic way to get there, given the poor transit service in Durham Region. About a month ago, I was indirectly called out when Bex from Cycle Toronto staff posted about cycle commuting 30 kilometres each way, which is almost the distance to Pickering! Thanks to that, some discussion with other cycling advocates, and the impending traffic nightmare known as the Pan Am Games, I used today – Bike to Work Day – to give cycle commuting another shot!

My bike at Danforth GO station

Spokes and Swapping Skills

On November 8 and 9, over 70 cyclists from all parts of Toronto (except Etobicoke) participated in Cycle Toronto’s second annual Skills Swap at City Hall. The first day consisted of speeches and advocacy workshops, while the second day was a bike plan pre-consultation with city staff.

Lessons from Canvassing in York West

Toronto’s municipal election is 30 days from today (October 27). There are the well-publicized mayoral races, but we also need to pay attention to the races for council and school trustee, given the mayor only has one vote in council. This is the first municipal election I have been involved with and it has been an eye opener in various ways. The mayoral race has been volatile with Olivia Chow losing her front runner status during the summer months and on the rebound again, John Tory being increasingly grilled over his SmartTrack transit plan, and Rob Ford withdrawing due to a cancer diagnosis while his brother Doug took his place. On a personal level, I have been asked to take on roles not encountered during previous political campaigns.

The Community Side of Cycling

There are various types of communities out there covering ethnic, political, business, and activity based interests. For cyclists, there are different organizations involved (e.g. Cycle Toronto, Share The Road, Toronto Bicycling Network) and different types of cycling (e.g. mountain, road, commuter), but the feel of being part of a community is present amongst all. This summer, I took part in two events which emphasized this community feel; those being the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer and Bike Rave.