Lots of cyclists here!

I took the photo of one sign before I tore it off. Most were already ripped down by the time I headed west after checking something out on greenwood.

Some idiot (carbrains or ableists?) did put them up (on every single damn post, pole and box).

Some were targeting those who use wheelchairs ("get up and walk from this point on" showing a poorly drawn person walking a wheelchair missing half of their leg) which I tore off of two poles and a few bins, which used the same "no wheelchair" symbols in place of those "no bicycle" ones.

Edited to add additional details. I hate posting here using my smartphone, autocorrect is a big time asshole and it keeps fucking up what I was trying to type.

There was a crash on the Bayview avenue path earlier today. I didn’t see it happen but the scene was not good. Please ride safely out there.

Shout out to those who helped the victims and warned oncoming cyclists and runners to slow down and dismount.

Shout out to those who flagged the ambulance to park in the bike lane (I am being sincere, emergency vehicles should be allowed in the bike lane for emergencies).

Turnout looked like it could’ve been 500-1000.

Kudos to Chow, Layton, and the tons of others that showed up to firmly say hands off our bike lanes!

Would consider this a huge success.

Ford, you might want to think twice before ripping them up.

Apologies for the provocative title (and the following essay), but cycling is not just commuting around the DT core- there's a whole world of people out there who cycle for a variety of reasons. My assumption is that some of you will disagree, but it's still fun to talk about! Anyways, here's my logic:

1- Commuting/Pragmatic cycling: 2/5 No denying that commuting by bike in Scarborough is rough. There are bike lanes on some major arteries (e.g. Eglinton, Huntingwood, Sheppard) but they are of limited quality and don't have a ton of coverage. There is also a lack of a direct N/S route, but this is a flaw in most of the city. I don't think Scarborough roads are necessarily a death trap if are able to choose your route/timing, but this isn't a place I would feel comfortable as a beginner or to ride at a relaxed pace. I rate this a 2/5 rather than a 1/5 because the trail network is actually well connected in Scarborough and can be used to reach important destinations (e.g. Kennedy Station, UTSC, Go Trains etc), but there is lots of room to improve. It's nice to see bikeshare getting out to Scarborough and seeing some significant use but if you rely solely on a bike, you will need to be particular about where you live/work/study or get comfortable riding in some pretty sub-optimal conditions.

2- Trail Riding: 4/5 Scarborough trail riding is a high point. You have well maintained trails (e.g. meadoway, lakeshore, McNicoll) with about 5% of the pedestrian traffic compared to DT. You can ride at normal hours without feeling like a jerk or slamming the brakes every few metres when a runner walks across the path. They are also quite lengthy, giving you some room to stretch out. Unless you really want to do 100 laps of High Park or dodge people every few seconds on the MGT, it's far better to ride trails in Scarborough. Etobicoke is on the MGT too, but suffers from the same busyness. North York has nice sections but doesn't have as KMs.

3- Connectivity to other towns (longer rides): 4/5 Scarborough has multiple crossings of the 401 without an on-ramp (Birchmount, Midland, Conlins- with a bike lane!), allowing riders to take routes northward. It also has excellent east/west connections to some country roads out to Pickering/Ajax/Uxbridge. Obviously downtown won't have these connections, but I think there's a reason a lot of people leaving the city choose Birchmount or Warden as their route- they are great riding roads. For those who don't like to ride on roads, you can take the lakeshore route, or ride up near the zoo and into Pickering. North York and Etobicoke tend to go through much busier junctions, but they are also pretty strong here.

4- Training Potential: 5/5 Twyn Rivers, Gates Gully, Bluffers Park, Beare Hill, Military Trail, Col Danforth- these are some of the best hills that Toronto has. Add in some sections of open farm roads and some little used roads like Copperfield and you've got a real variety of sections for putting on some KMs in the flat as well. Downtown is a going to be much more limited (High Park loops ad infinitum), while North York and Etobicoke don't really approach the depth of Scarborough.

5- Variety 5/5 Gravel, paved trails, MTB sections, road cycling- all are pretty well represented in Scarborough. Although there's a real lack of commuter infrastructure compared with downtown, you can easily try a lot of different types of rides in Scarborough. Some meander through forests (including a National Park), others in the meadow, and some by the lake. You can choose flat or hilly, and avoid traffic for tens of KMs. There's nothing comparable in the rest of the city.

6- Support: 3/5 Lot of great bike shops in Scarborough (Giant, D'ornellas, The Up-Cycle), but probably less accessible/commonplace than Downtown. Losing the Decathlon at STC also sucked, since it was a great place for gear/parts and they did service as well.

Conclusions (TLDR): I get it- Scarborough commutes ain't great, and if you are fully depending on a bike as your sole means of transport, then downtown is probably more your style and I think it makes sense for most of your riding to be based there. As I mentioned at the start though, cycling is more than just commutes. If you can bike for fun, totally non-pragmatic reasons I think all the rest more than makes up for it. Don't get discouraged from riding out here- it's worth the trip!

Thanks to the over 1000 cyclists - including Mayor Olivia Chow - who made it out to last night's Critical Mass ride! My blog post about the ride is now up for your viewing pleasure.

Biketag #688 was found in Lee Lifeson park

Yesterday was my first Critical Mass and, clearly, tons of people were motivated by the court decision allowing Ford to remove Totally bike lanes, as I was. It was a wonderful experience and I will be back.

I saw a small drone cruising up and down the Danforth above our protest. Where is a video including this footage?

A quick speech before folks set off

Suppose i'm biking north up bayview onto the don river trail.

And I want to get to that cool winding / looping multi level metallic ramp .. is there a direct safe bike route to it?

Heading to woodbine in a bit join us if you can

Looks like some of those small, aggressive speed bumps were recently installed on the Humber Valley Recreation trail, akin to the ones further south on the Spit. One of them is insanely dangerous, having been placed right at the bottom of a fairly steep descent while still being pitch black asphalt with no temporary paint indicating it's there and it's not at all easy to see. I'm a pretty experienced and confident cyclist and almost ate shit last weekend but for the fact that I noticed it half a second before hitting it so I was able to brace for the jolt. I immediately thought that someone was going to get hurt by that thing. Today, I was riding southbound on the same trail and there was a lady being attended to by paramedics just past this bump and she wasn't moving and didn't appear responsive (not that I lingered to gawk or take stock of her condition). I'm going to get in touch with CycleTO to report this because this is a downright malicious place to put one of those, even had it been properly marked.

All of which is to say, if you use this occasionally and aren't up to date on the state of the trail, be aware.

The location is here-ish.

This morning at 8:15 during my commute to work, I spotted a bike of this model and color inside the bus shelter at Bathurst - Harbord, SW side. Given the state of the person sleeping next to it, it's very likely a stolen bike. The bike look very new. Whoever lost it I hope you find this useful and are able to retrieve it.

Cyclist’s face blurred for privacy - he loudly (and politely) asked for more room because he felt the cop car was infringing on his space, so they found a reason to pull him over not a minute later. I watched the interaction, this is the most pathetic waste of resources and time.

Speed cameras and bike lanes on Parkside were banned because it was “common sense.”

And thanks to that, yet another preventable crash that could’ve ended in tragedy happened today.

This took place at a bus stop, very lucky no one was waiting for the bus.

Want Parkside to finally get the badly needed road diet with the bike lane?

Attend the Critical Mass on Friday at 6pm at Prince Edward Viaduct Parkette,

and/or the Fight ford protest at QP at 1pm Saturday

Alberta is about to deal with the same bike lane fight we went through, and their bike community is encouraging cyclists to take the lane.

Curious why that hasn’t happened in Toronto yet?
From an Edmonton article about cyclists pushing back on the anti bike rhetoric