Back on October 23, a group from Bike Brampton led by David Laing attended the Rally and Ride for Road Safety at Queen’s Park; some of whom biked all the way from Brampton. To return the favour, Jess Spieker of Friends & Families for Safe Streets organized a group to take the GO Train to Brampton yesterday for Bike Brampton’s delivery of a ghost bike at Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office on Hurontario Street.
Upon reviewing the North York map for the 2025-27 Bike Plan, one of the most significant projects in the pipeline is the Bathurst Complete Street from Bainbridge to Steeles Avenues. A cycling route which also shows up in York Region’s 2022 Transportation Master Plan. Ahead of the public consultation scheduled for Thursday, January 30 (6:00 – 8:30 PM) at Rockford Public School, let’s look at what this project has to offer, as well as what’s needed to further improve connectivity in the area.
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| Bathurst Complete Street rendering - Via City of Toronto |
My last two posts about the September trip to Central Asia focused on Uzbekistan; the first part dealing with Tashkent, Samarkand, and Shahrisabz while the second talked about Bukhara and Khiva. However, the trip also included four days in Almaty, Kazakhstan and another four days in Istanbul on the way back home. Let’s look at what Almaty has to offer, as well as some of the sights in Istanbul we didn’t explore back in December 2019.
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| Helen and I at the top of Shymbulak peak near Almaty |
In Part 1 of my Uzbekistan series, I talked about getting there, as well as the experiences visiting Tashkent, Samarkand, and Shahrisabz. While Samarkand may get the most tourists in that country, a trip there can’t be complete without also visiting Bukhara and Khiva. Those two cities will be the focus of this post, while Almaty is featured in a separate write up.
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| The Ark of Bukhara seen from Bukhara Tower |
Back in September, Helen and I went to Uzbekistan, Almaty (Kazakhstan), and Istanbul. While I did write a post in October explaining some urbanism observations – including the awe-inspiring Tashkent metro – I never got around to writing about the sights themselves. Let’s look back at that trip to see why you may want to consider heading there in the future.
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| A view of Samarkand from Hazrat Khizr Mosque |
Happy New Year, #BikeTO! Hope 2025 has gotten off to a good start for you. With today being 4’C with some light drizzle in the morning which tapered off later, I went to the 13th Annual New Year’s Day Ride hosted by Alex which started at Yonge & Queen’s Quay. It was my second New Year's Day ride after last year’s one.
