Bridge Open!

Anyone who uses the Taylor Creek/Seton/Serena Gundy parks, in Toronto, to cycle will be well aware that the bridge linking Taylor Creek and Seton parks had been out of commission for almost a year. This morning I was happy to find the bridge renovation finally completed.

Here are some pictures I took of the bridge:



The original bridge was not removed where it crosses over the railroad tracks, but new aluminum “boards” were installed.



Here’s a view of the tracks, looking west. The bridge in the distance supports the Don Valley Parkway. While I was at the bridge a GO train went by, but I didn’t manage to get a picture of it.



The ramps leading up to the bridge were entirely replaced. The ramp on the west side of the bridge goes under Don Mills Road.



The ramps used to be surfaced with wood slats, which had become quite worn. Asphalt is now used.



This is looking up the ramp that leads to the bridge from the west side.



Someone added a silhouette of a walking person on the footing at the east side.



More graffiti under Don Mills Road.

Taylor Creek Recreational Trail

I recently went for a ride on the Taylor Creek Recreational Trail in Toronto. This is a trail I often use. I haven’t been on it in a while, though, due to a bridge being replaced. This construction has blocked the trail just to the west of where it goes under the Don Valley Parkway. A friend told me that it is possible to make your way through the construction and continue on the trail, but I haven’t tried this.

According to the City of Toronto’s website, the new bridge was supposed to have been completed by April 30. So, on May 1 I decided to see if the bridge was in fact finished. Well, it wasn’t ... At the bridge construction site I asked a worker when he thought the bridge might be finished, and he said it would be “two or three weeks” yet.

I don’t know exactly when construction began on this bridge, but it must have been pushing a year ago. The previous bridge was a well-worn wooden structure that was fun to bike on. It is being replaced with a metal one. The bridge goes over some railway tracks.

It was a beautiful day for a ride—warm and sunny, about 20 degrees. Taylor Creek Recreational Trail has many interesting things to look at. Here are a few of them:



This is a large concrete bridge that supports O’Connor Drive.



There are wetlands along the trail that are being encouraged and protected.



Every square centimetre of this shed used to be covered in graffiti. Workers painted over the building about a year ago. Not surprisingly, it has been tagged again. I wish they had left it as it was. The graffiti that used to be there was much nicer. Perhaps as the shed gradually picks up ever more graffiti, it will eventually regain its former look.

Post-and-Ring Update

In October of last year I wrote a blog that favourably reported on the number of post-and-rings, used for locking bikes, in Toronto. I think it is time to slightly amend that view. The city still has the same number of posts; it is just that the number of rings is decreasing.

Places where post-and-rings are located now often have one or two posts with the ring removed. And they don’t seem to be getting replaced. For instance, the area at the southwest corner of the Toronto Reference Library has seen the disappearance of rings, but not one has been replaced.

I suppose they are being removed by bike thieves. Makes you realize that there is no completely safe place to lock up a bike out of doors.

We are in a time of municipal government belt tightening. But I can’t imagine that the cost of replacing these rings would be that prohibitive. Still, I certainly understand that other areas of spending are more important than replacing bike rings.

But on the other hand ... Leaving aside the ever-present possibility of getting hit by a car door, we should remember that cycling is a healthy activity. I am sure there are savings in health care costs associated with cycling. (Granted, health care is not a municipal responsibility.) Also, cyclists don’t clog up streets nearly as much as do cars, and they don’t emit exhaust. So the city should be interested in doing what it can to encourage cycling. Replacing missing bike rings would be one way of doing this.

Our current mayor, Rob Ford, is famously unfriendly toward the cycling community, and I imagine that his attitude is not helping matters. But if cyclists were to contact their local councillors in sufficient numbers when the rings go missing, perhaps some of them might start to reappear.

Doris Day Parking

There are many elements to driving in the city that are irritating. Parking is one.

An advantage to riding your bike is that you don’t have to deal with the tedious search for parking spaces. Back when I used to drive a lot more than I now do, I remember often circling around blocks, looking for a spot that wouldn’t require me to walk half a kilometre just to get to where I was going.

The expression Doris Day parking is taken from the scenes in her movies in which Doris Day invariably finds the perfect spot, right in front of where she is going. Every day is a Doris Day parking day for cyclists. Occasionally I’ll have to search out a good spot for my bike, but it never takes me more than a moment. Parking is a time-wasting, sometimes stressful activity I can happily live without.

And I don’t have to pay to lock my bike, either. Living as I do in Toronto, a city somewhat infamous for its parking charges, I’m happy to not have this steady drain on my income. Nor do I have to worry about getting parking tickets. I can park almost anywhere I like free of charge.

Cycling in the city brings many challenges: it might be raining; it might be cold or windy; you might get hit by a car; your bike might get ripped off. But at least you can park like Doris Day.

Riding Bare-Handed

I ran some errands yesterday morning on my bike. As I was leaving, the temperature stood at around three or four degrees (C). Not a cold to bring Amundsen or Franklin to mind, but it still felt mildly winterish out.

I wore a toque under my helmet and had on my winter-weight gloves. I was ready for the cold. But in the time it took me to go to the first store on my list and make my purchase, perhaps half an hour, the sun had come out and the cold was going away.

Because I had forgotten a receipt I needed for another of my errands, I briefly returned to my house. While there I switched my toque for a Lycra tube (I think it is meant to be worn around the neck, but I like it around my head and ears when I need something to cut the wind). I also ditched my scarf and switched my heavy gloves for lightweight ones. As I got on my bike to start part two of my trip, I decided that I should probably unbutton my coat. At this point I was wishing that I had gotten around to repairing the zipper on my windbreaker last fall…

By the time I got down to Queen Street it was feeling downright spring-like. It was very sunny and the temperature had risen to ten degrees. As I got on my bike to return home I removed the Lycra tube from my head and even took off my gloves. It felt unusual to ride with no gloves for the first time in months. Riding bare-handed is a sure sign of spring.

Licence to Ride

The other day I witnessed an almost comic example of clueless cycling. A man slowly glided his bike across Danforth Avenue, a major Toronto street, forcing a driver to have to slow down and then change lanes in order to avoid the cyclist. I’m not sure what was going through this man’s mind as he slowly made his way across Danforth, but I can make a better guess at what was going through the driver’s mind...

I remember reading a letter to the editor by someone who thought cyclists should be licensed and tested just as motorists are. This seems like a sensible idea to me. A report by Ontario’s coroner that was released in June 2012 found that of the 129 cycling deaths that occurred between 2006 and 2010, 44 were blamed on the actions of the cyclists involved.(1) I think it is time to bring some seriousness to the way cycling on city streets is approached.

Although I have noticed an improvement in cycling behaviour over the past several years, there still exists a Wild West mentality to cycling in Toronto. Some cyclists take the rules of the road seriously, but many still don’t. I don’t think obeying traffic rules should be optional. In fact I would be happy to see police handing out tickets to cyclists, an event I have yet to witness. Police do occasionally launch ticketing blitzes directed at cyclists, but I would rather see them enforcing the rules every day.(2)

Testing and licensing cyclists would ensure that all cyclists are aware of the traffic rules, and would hopefully reduce the number of deaths and injuries.

1. http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=187427
2. http://www.cp24.com/news/police-dish-out-tickets-in-bicycle-safety-campaign-1.949200

Waiting for Spring

As I write, Toronto is covered in a mess of slush and has been for several days. Even the most indefatigable cyclists are having to find other ways to get where they’re going. Like everyone else at the end of February, cyclists are starting to look forward to spring. For one thing, the thought of riding in warmer temperatures is starting to seem more and more enticing. It’s always a great feeling to be out on your bike in shorts and a T-shirt. Especially the first few times you are able to do this in the spring.

And it’ll be a happy thing when a few rains have washed the salt from the streets. My bike has taken a beating this winter. It is covered in grime, salt, and grease; I’m looking forward to a warm day when I can thoroughly wash it. In fact, it needs a bit of a tune-up as well, but I would be too embarrassed to take it into the shop this dirty.

This winter in Toronto has been a little more wintry than usual. During the last few winters, we had almost no snow, but this year we have had quite a lot. And the snowfalls we’ve had haven’t immediately melted away--a common occurrence in recent years. While Toronto does not get the snow that surrounding areas typically get, or other parts of the country for that matter, we’ve had enough this winter that cycling has been an on-again, off-again activity. Before this year, I had grown accustomed to being able to ride more or less all winter. While I am happy to see some snow for a change, the cyclist in me is waiting for spring.