It’s nothing as bold as Cate’s solo cycling adventures, but I’m having fun. I brought my Brompton to Toronto for a visit with my son. He had to work, so I am exploring a bit of the city.
I started out by taking it for a ride around Mount Pleasant Cemetery because I knew it would be a safe mostly car-free spot. I ignored all the signs warning cyclists not to speed because I was too busy stopping to look at monuments and Google the more interesting ones.
The next day, I tried out the bike share service in order to ride to Cherry Beach, a destination I had wanted to visit last year; I was thwarted then by a week of unrelenting rain. As a cycling advocate, I really wanted to see what was possible, what was scary, and what was brilliant in a different city.
Aside from walking around my son’s neighbourhood, my experience of Toronto dates back well over 20 years. At that time, I knew a car-clogged section of Scarborough and had paid occasional visits to the downtown. My recollection of busy downtown streets was that they were not at all car friendly, although a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum a couple of years ago showed that things had changed: cycling was was possible (and possibly even pleasant).
The first thing I noticed when I picked up an e-bike at a nearby station was how many bike parking options there were. Every corner had racks, and most of the racks would be useable by non-standard cargo bikes or bikes with trailers or baskets, too. That’s key if you want people to ride: they need to feel confident that their bikes won’t be stolen.
The very first instruction was to ride down Yonge Street – yikes! Well, yikes until I realized that there was a separated bike path protected by a pin curbs with bollards or flexiposts. It was great! From there I worked my way to The Beaches area, mostly using lanes that were physically separated from cars. In 10.5 km of travel, I came across only one vehicle parked in a bike lane, and one spot of construction where I briefly needed to share the road with cars (but it had good signage and the drivers gave me plenty of space, as they did whenever I was at an intersection or had only painted lines for protection). Even in quite industrial areas there were some lovely paths.
Google Maps was not my friend, as it took me along Lakeshore Drive to Woodbine Beach instead of to Cherry Beach, but I’m not mad about that. Woodbine Beach turned out to be gorgeous and I had a lovely swim.
I planned my ride home to take me past the store that was the main setting for Kim’s Convenience, a popular Canadian TV show. It meant more busy downtown streets, a few of which had no bike lanes, but it felt no worse than downtown Ottawa, and most of it felt considerably better.
The ride home took me up Sherbourne, which was a lovely mix of bike lanes that were separated by being at level with the sidewalk, or had pin curbs or speed bumps topped with either bollards or flexiposts to keep cars out of the lane. I paralleled a bus most of the way; it was nice to have my own lane so I didn’t have to stop behind it all the time, and it was easy to avoid riders getting on and off at the stops.
Google Maps tried to kill me right at the end of my ride: first directing me down a one-way steep hill to merge into busy traffic so I could turn left across multiple lanes less than half a block away. That was a big old nope so I walked my bike back up the hill on the sidewalk, and headed into Rosedale looking for an alternate route.
The second attempt was when it took me right past the park where I was pretty sure I could find a bike share stand, and down a little path that led to a steep flight of stairs to the bottom of a ravine. Also nope! I got myself back to the park, off-loaded the bike and walked home in time for a shower and quick nap before walking to dinner.
Total count for the day: 33+ km cycling, 10.5 km walking and a 1 km swim.
Day 3, my final day of this holiday, was dedicated to exploring trails along the Don River. Growing up, the Don had a reputation as a terribly polluted place, and the Don Valley Parkway was considered well-named because of the stop-and-go traffic. The reality today is quite different.
The day started off badly as I believed both Google and the Toronto trails map, and was too stubborn to go back up a steep hill once I discovered the trail was closed. Instead, I half carried my bike along a narrow dirt path that was sometimes muddy, sometimes under water, and sometimes blocked with roots or fallen trees. Something that should have taken 12 minutes took an hour.
But after that, I had a delightful ride down to the Brickworks park and then north to the botanical gardens and then along another trail that took me into Don Mills. At that point, I was faced with very busy roads and no bike lanes, so decided to head home. Total distance for the day was just shy of 33 km.
I’m glad I brought my little Brompton on this trip, but also glad I had the option of the bike share. Both turned out to be really handy for exploring the city.
Next stop: points west to visit friends and hopefully use the Brompton some more.
Loved this — the google map cycling thing is still very iffy IME. (The Don Valley path has been closed for more than a year now — it basically doesn’t exist at this point while it’s being ripped up and rebuilt, not aided by the recent flooding).
I had my own similar experience the other day — I had a meeting in Oshawa, and I brought my folding bike (a Tern) in my colleague’s car, and did a cycling/ GO train trip back home. Google took me through some random spaces on my 13 km ride through Oshawa as well, but it was a fun little work adventure.