May 26, 2024

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.

Ingrid Buday of No More Noise Toronto and Warren Huska were interviewed by CityNews.

Beaches-East York MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon had a sign on her basket in memory of Mary Ann Neary – a long-time volunteer with Bells on Danforth, 32 Spokes, and Community Bikeways – who passed away earlier this month. A link to her obituary can be found here. RIP.

Kevin Rupasinghe of Danforth-Kingston 4 All made some opening remarks.

Marvin Macaraig of Scarborough Cycles and Access Alliance talked about his work as a health promoter and the need for the Danforth-Kingston project to move forward.

Mary-Margaret noted how there was progress being done with bike lanes north, south, and west, but that more needed to be done east in Scarborough. She also gave a shout to Mary Ann’s recent passing and that she rides in memory of her.

Toronto-Danforth MP Julie Dabrusin took part in past Bells on Danforth rides and talked about her work in implementing a federal Active Transportation Strategy. The federal government announced a $400 million active transportation fund in February 2021 and has been making funding announcements since last fall.

The ride started to assemble on West Lynn Avenue.

And we’re off with Marvin in front.

I recorded a video of the ride turning onto Danforth and counted 98 riders excluding myself. There was a red light that briefly held up the ride at this point.

The ride at Woodbine Avenue.

Crossing Victoria Park Avenue where the bike lanes end.

The ride regrouped at AccessPoint Danforth which is Scarborough Cycles’ first location. This was to ensure everyone was close together and taking the lane given the absence of bike lanes.

Here’s another video of the ride riding past AccessPoint Danforth.

Here’s Jess Spieker of Friends & Families for Safe Streets and Hafeez Alavi.

Waiting to turn left onto Danforth Road.

On Danforth Road. Past Bells on Danforth rides ended at or near the plaza on the right.

We took some side streets to get to our final destination of Scotia Parkette.

The ride arriving at Scotia Parkette.

Ian McVey of Danforth-Kingston 4 All gave some final remarks. Some buttons were available on a PWYC (pay what you can) basis while volunteers were encouraged to help drop off postcards in nearby mailboxes afterwards. A tactic Community Bikeways and Bells on Bloor used for their Bloor campaigns.

A closer look at the buttons and postcards.

One thing that drives me nuts is how there is a bike share station at Scotia Parkette, but no bike lanes on that part of Danforth.

One last shot of the ride at Scotia Parkette before some of us left to ride back west.

If you haven’t already done so, please go to www.danforthkingston4all.ca to sign the petition and learn more about how you can help the campaign. I also encourage you to e-mail iec@toronto.ca by tomorrow at 4:30 PM to demand a bolder bike plan (IE14.3) including the need to get Danforth-Kingston done as soon as possible. We can't afford to have this project get deferred again to the 2028-30 plan per this graphic from Danforth-Kingston 4 All.

Thanks to the Danforth-Kingston 4 All team for organizing today’s ride, as well as to MPP McMahon and MP Dabrusin for attending.

Here's some media coverage from CityNews about the ride.

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