Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Hope you were able to enjoy the long weekend with lots of food, as well as some riding. With today being sunny and 10’C, I rode 25 kilometres to check out the progress along the East Don Trail, new cycle tracks along Ferrand, and improvements to the Leaside Bridge.
With Metrolinx refusing to provide an opening date for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT until three months from that time, the much-delayed transit line won’t be opening this year. The Finch West LRT celebrated a milestone recently with all stations and stops being completed, but also lacks an opening date and has even been subject to a recent lawsuit. But where do things stand with their respective bikeways? I did a couple of site checks this week after work to find out.
Apparently, a lot has happened for cycling in Toronto while I was on vacation in Uzbekistan. A complete street has been built on Eglinton from Avenue to Chaplin, a group ride from Willowdale to Downtown attracted 80 people, and the Ford government irresponsibly proposed restricting bike lane installations which remove traffic lanes. (Please sign Cycle Toronto's petition opposing this if you haven't already.) I was also informed about a complete street project happening on Dupont which the City is collecting feedback until Wednesday, October 30. Let's review what's being planned for Dupont, as well as some hotspots and background information.
As if this year wasn’t bad enough for Toronto’s cycling community with five cyclists killed as of July, news broke out that a 26-year-old female cyclist died today resulting from last Saturday's crash at Burnamthorpe just east of Kipling. This sixth cyclist death of 2024 also happens to be fifteen years to the day from when bike messenger Darcy Allan Sheppard was killed by then Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant. Let’s look at the street’s current condition and what the City’s plans are for improving cycling in this part of Etobicoke.
Over the past few months, the City of Toronto has been very busy installing new bike lanes across the city. Since I had the day off work and had some errands to run before going on vacation in two weeks, I checked out the Portland-Dan Leckie and West Parkdale cycling connections, as well as the progress of the Bloor and St. George protected intersection.
Regardless of whether we get around by walking, cycling, transit, or driving, we can all agree that nothing frustrates us more than delays getting things built. We are also aware that Toronto City Council can push to accelerate certain projects as they see fit. We saw that with the ActiveTO bike lane roll out during the pandemic and last month’s approval of a motion to accelerate construction of a stretch of the Gardiner Expressway, so it gets completed by 2026 instead of 2027. Let’s review four active transportation projects that have been subject to ridiculously long delays which are unacceptable given the record number of cyclist deaths this year.
On Wednesday, my employer organized a post work Blue Jays game which I haven’t seen in at least five years. During this time, work on the protected intersection at Bloor and St. George is well under way. This post covers the intersection progress so far, as well as what it’s like biking to the Rogers Centre (or Skydome for you diehards out there). 😉
