Second Annual Willowdale Community Ride

Last year, fellow cyclist Peter Low organized the first Willowdale Community Ride with Councillor Lily Cheng. However, I couldn’t make it since Helen and I were on vacation in Uzbekistan at the time, though you can check this great recap from fellow bike blogger Lisa Stokes from Brampton. Today marked the second time Peter and Lily put together this ride which almost 100 people made it out for. A testament to show there indeed is demand for cycling in North York even with the lack of cycling infrastructure! 😉

Rally and Ride for Eglinton

Last month, Toronto’s cycling community learned the City of Toronto would be resurfacing Eglinton Avenue without the promised bike lanes given the Eglinton Crosstown LRT continues to be faced with delays. This prompted me to prepare this action alert, while Cycle Toronto issued their own along with organizing tonight’s “Rally and Ride for Eglinton” which almost 100 people attended.

Revisiting Toronto’s 2012 Trails Plan

Back in 2012 when the late Rob Ford was Mayor, Toronto approved a 77-kilometre Bikeway Trails Implementation Plan. While the City of Toronto has since issued a Ten-Year Cycling Network Plan (2016) and a series of three-year plans, it’s worth revisiting which of the trails have been completed since then and which ones have not. Let’s dive in!

It’s Time to Demand Accountability for Eglinton

Two things that have made Torontonians furious at the Ford government lately are the constantly delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT and their war on bikes through Bill 212. Both of these matters intersected yesterday when Toronto Today had reported the bike lanes proposed under eglintonTOday would be paused because of Bill 212. While the article was later corrected to state the City of Toronto’s commitment to do the installation after the LRT opens, the City of Toronto updated the eglintonTOday project website to say installation would not happen in 2025 when the road resurfacing work happens.

Late August Don Trail Exploring

Over the past few days, I found out on Urban Toronto that the East Don Trail has made some more progress since the tunnel installation in late May, while Joric shared in the Cycling in Toronto Facebook group that the Lower Don Trail access at Don Mills Road has been made more accessible. Earlier today, I went on a 19-kilometre ride to check out both items.

An aerial shot of Bridge #2 on the East Don Trail (via TwinHuey on Urban Toronto)

August 2025 Cycling Construction Check In

Last year, Toronto installed almost 27 kilometres of on-street bikeways; making it the second highest year ever after the 30 kilometres installed in 2020 during the pandemic. This includes 8.5 kilometres for Finch Avenue West which I deemed to be substantially completed per a site visit, but the City of Toronto didn’t count as Metrolinx hadn’t transferred the street back to the City. Even excluding Finch, 18 kilometres is still respectable compared to prior years. With Doug Ford’s Bill 212 limiting new bike lane installations and Cycle Toronto’s charter challenge win last month (which the Ford government formally submitted their appeal today), it made me wonder what the impact on new bike lane installations would be.

Bikeway construction on The Esplanade in May 2025

Escarpment and Chippewa Rail Trails

Two years ago, I rode the Hamilton to Brantford Rail Trail as part of a longer Kitchener to Hamilton ride. It was a very good trail with the former Sulphur Springs train station being the main draw. However, I was meaning to check some other rail trails in the Hamilton area such as the Escarpment and Chippewa. Having got a new gravel bike last month and a day off work yesterday, I finally got to check both trails off my bucket list.