Amazing Toronto Bike Tour

It's only a few hours away. I've got some guides and I'm going to be printing off some more because I found out that it appeared in the Saturday's Globe and Mail! Who knows how many will show up! Could be 10 or 100.

You can now download the turn booklet (attached to this blog), and do the route whenever you want. It goes into the details of distances and turns.

If you are planning to show up. Come at 9am. We'll be leaving soon after. Make sure you show up prepared, bring:

The ride will be long but it won't be too fast or strenuous. I want people to enjoy themselves. Plus there are options for people who can only do part of the tour. And if you get tired you can always take your bike on the bus, subway or streetcar on weekends.

Read the full event details.

Jack Lackey is reporting in today's Fixer column in the Toronto Star that many of Toronto's famous "Post and Ring" style bike racks are easily removed.

"We checked yesterday and found one laying on the ground, but the rest appeared to be okay – until we pulled on one and found it could be hoisted out of its hole with almost no effort. Three posts were still in their holes in some inlaid brick, but not securely anchored."

Dan Egan, manager of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure at the City is apparently getting it fixed.

Cyclists: Please be careful when locking your bikes up. If you're locking to a bike rack (post and ring, or other style), make sure you: 1) Verify that it's securely anchored to the ground or other unmoveable object, 2) In good condition and not falling apart (some of the rings come loose!), and 3) Follow the usual "best practices" when locking your bike (use a good lock, park in a well-lit and trafficked area, lock as many parts of the bike as possible, etc.).

Bike theft won't go away any time soon, but let's at least make it more difficult for the thieves.

Wilket Creek Path DamageTuesday's storm gave us all a reminder of the raw power of nature. There have already been a few big storms this year. Since our bike paths often run near rivers, heavy downpours can have an impact on our favorite car-free routes.

Some of us are probably old enough to remember the storm back in July of 2005 when the pathway along Wilket Creek, near Edwards Gardens, was washed away. This is the path that parallels Leslie Street between Eglinton and Lawrence, and connects to the Don River path.

The issue was reported in the August 2005 Cyclometer. In 2006, Bike Lane Diary featured photographs of the damage.

When I rode this path last fall, the unpaved area was actually sand. Unless you have a mountain bike with wide tires, you have to walk your bike to get past this. If you've been there recently, feel free to share how it looks now, or send a photograph.

A strange story came out of Wisconsin today. A student falls off his bike while braking to avoid a truck. The truck runs over his head, crushing his helmet, but leaving him with little more than a concussion.

"I didn't see it coming, but I sure felt it roll over my head," he said. "It feels really strange to have a truck run over your head."

As the helmet debate continues, and it will, we can be sure we'll hear this story come up as an anecdote in favour of helmets. Quite often though, the debate is not so much about whether helmets are useful or not, but whether or not they should be required by law or simply encouraged.

While I'm at it, here's one more take on helmets from Momentum Magazine.

Last Thursday Community Bicycle Network supporters got together to discuss the future of the Network. CBN has been around since 1993 as a hub of various projects, ranging from working with youth on getting bike mechanics skills to bicycle recycling clubs to Bikeshare, a renowned bicycle lending program.

The feeling from the meeting was that there was renewed energy in a group of demoralized supporters. A lot of ideas were passed around that will then be put before the Annual General Meeting so the membership can decide the best actions. I had a few favorite ideas for what CBN is especially suited to take on - ideas I felt were strongly supported by the group at the gathering.

One is to explore more a model of (almost) self-sustainability through having income-generating projects that also support community access to affordable resources: cycling education, recycling, lending, and tool sharing. A focus on low-income groups would be done through this sustainable model.

Name: Susanne and Parker
Age: 36 and 4
Occupation: Public Relations Consultant

Where do you commute?
Parker and I ride from Queen East to her daycare about 10 blocks away. I then continue to Queen and Bathurst to work. I use Queen almost exclusively, although sometimes I drop down to Richmond at Church. Sometimes it seems to take a few minutes off the trip, but can be more hair raising!

Tonight's the night to come and unleash all of your awesome ideas for Toronto's Community Bicycle Network (not to mention getting to meet Large Marge, iBikeTO blogger extraordinaire). What will happen to the 150 yellow bikes that are currently collecting cobwebs in storage? What kind of programming could/should be planned for the upcoming months and years? It's up to you to decide!

CBN will also be accepting nomination for its Advisory Board.

As posted by CBN:
Community Bicycle Network lives beyond Bikeshare! Have your say.

CBN Town Hall Meeting – May 10th, 2007 6:30PM
CBN Intersection | 761 Queen Street West

With the unfortunate loss of funding for the popular Bikeshare program, the Community Bicycle Network hopes to modify programming in a way that will be enable us to continue to assist in making cycling accessible to low-income communities and to share our collective resources, while managing to be financially sustainable.

On May 10, 2007 at 6:30pm, CBN will host a Town Hall meeting to discuss the future direction of the organization. Now's your chance to speak your two cents, to participate in the cycling movement which continues to grow as a vibrant part of Toronto life!

Goldhawk Live focuses on cycling tonight from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Rogers Television's local cable channel -- channel 10.

The guests on the program will be Councillor Adrian Heaps, Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest, and Ron Fletcher, the President of the Toronto Bicycling Network.

Heaps was recently appointed as the Councillor representative to the Toronto Cycling Committee. Fletcher is TBN's new representative to the Toronto Cycling Committee.

This is a phone in show so you can call in to ask the guests about plans to get the Toronto Bike Plan back on track.

The phone number for the phone in portion is 1-800-968-7863.

This will be the first chance to hear what Councillor Heaps' plans are to make cycling issues a priority City Hall. It should be an interesting show.

Thanks to Martin Koob at biketoronto.ca for the tip.

Photo courtesy of bikelanediary

Crossposted to Spacing