suburbs

The Best Way to Commute: A couple of stragglers at the start of the group commute at High Park and Bloor.

Today is the first day of Toronto's annual Bike Month. As usual, there was a group commute from various corners of the city, converging on City Hall for a City-sponsored pancake breakfast.

So how was it? I have no idea, really. I did the complete opposite and rode out of the city this morning, as usual, since my job is in that scary hinterland that few downtown Toronto cyclists ever venture out to: Mississauga. Actually, it's not that scary. I enjoy my commute, and it's often the best part of my day.

Last year I did the group commute to Toronto City hall from High Park, ate breakfast, then turned around and rode back west to work. It was a great way to start the day off, but perhaps a bit too much cycling so early in the day and I got to work even later than usual.

This year, however, the City of Mississauga, via Smart Commute Mississauga and the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee hosted their Bike to Work Day Pancake Breakfast on the same day as Toronto's, so I headed straight west this morning.

The National Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer hits many nails on their heads with today's story on Vaughan, suburban developments, faux cities, and his search for a bicycle basket in Vaughan.

The Darkness at the Edge of Town:

... Above the covered sidewalks that connect the stores are arches bearing paintings of Italian scenes: St. Peter's Basilica, the Colosseum in Rome and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Rather than lend distinction to the place, the Italian scenes remind me that I am thousands of kilometres away from architecture that the builders of this place consider beautiful.

So many of the problems faced by cyclists and pedestrians come down to the original planning for a city, or lack of planning. Where I work, in Richmond Hill, it may be pedestrian friendly compared to Vaughan, with parking lots small enough that lunch crowds complain about finding parking, and roads that max out at a measly 8 lanes. Still, try to walk from a parking lot to a sidewalk (you're not meant to do that, by the way) and you can find yourself fearfully peaking around bushes hoping not to get hit by cars decelerating as they sweep into the lots.

The Globe gives us another reminder of the health problems associated with living in the suburbs. The reporter talks to a cardiologist who follows his own advice by cycling year round to two Toronto hospitals.

When he and his wife Amanda chose their home, a three-storey detached, they needed a place that had space enough for their three children and was close to a good school. But a prime factor was the timing for Dr. Connely's trip to work.

"I believe in practising what I preach," he says. "I cycle for the health benefits, and if you have to spend too much time, you tend not to do it. Twenty or thirty minutes gives me a decent ride every day."

As many of us have just finished visiting family and friends living in different cities and suburbs, this article might help reassure us of the value of our small apartments and condos, or old creaky houses.

The following article was submitted by veronica, I Bike TO's intrepid, undercover reporter.

Having spent the last dozen years cycling around TO, I think I've hit just about every inch of the city from North York to Kingston Road, to the Island to Royal York, - been there/know those potholes. Lately, I've been itching to expand my range. So when an invitation came my way to have dinner at the Glenn Abbey in Oakville, I figured it was a perfect opportunity for me and my folding bike to go exploring.

Oakville Welcomes You

I knew, from a previous driveby of Oakville, that there are some nice looking, totally separated from road and sidewalk, bike lanes that criss cross through Oakville. So my first step was to get hold of one of their cycling maps. Nothing on the Town's website, so I phoned up city hall and after bouncing around to a few places finally got transfered to the correct department. The conversation went something like this:

me: I'd like to get a cycling map for Oakville, please.

Oakville staff person [OSP]: Certainly, our maps are for sale at the Town office.

[me thinks: For sale? You mean I've got to pay money for this thing? But I'm a cyclists a.k.a. cheapskates! Oh well, never mind.]

I took a detour this morning to stop in at the site of the ghost bike where a cyclist was fatally hit one week ago.

It's intersections like this, Bayview and the 401, that make it clear why so many people are stuck driving cars in this part of the city. Not many people have the courage or skills to ride a bike under the 401, with cars changing lanes, squeezing, accelerating and jockeying for first place on the on ramp. So many of the problems in the area become evident when you place yourself at one side of the 401, and try to figure out a good way to cycle to the other side.

Bayview and 401 area map

There are very few places to cross the 401 in this end of the city. I usually cross at Yonge, 2 km to the west, where there's a small pathway. The nearest crossing to the east is about 2.5 km, but you need to go at least .5 km south to cross a railroad track and cross a river in order to get to that path.

If only I will age quite as gracefully. At about kilometre 60 into the 100 km "Amazing Toronto Bike Tour" an older gentleman on his Canadian Tire road bike tells me that only last year he was hospital-bound with a broken hip from a cycling accident. And now he's biking 100 km in one day. Amazing.

Last Sunday I hosted the second 100 km ride, the "Amazing Toronto Bike Tour" (photos). We had about 25 people of various levels of ability. I was surprised that most of the participants were willing to tackle the daunting 100 km, and quite a few either biked the 100 km, or biked a lot more than what they were normally used to.

I commute a lot by bike but rarely do I bike that much in one day. It was a good way to work off some winter fat since it's so hard to take long bike rides in the frigid weather. I'm just lucky that I started commuting to Mississauga so I had some training coming into the ride.

Ah, the suburbs. They're often misunderstood as cycling hell. The truth is, it's mostly idyllic. The streets are quiet, as long as you choose the right ones. Parallel parked cars are about as rare as pedestrians. The thing is, there are these short stretches of fire and bubbling lava that you eventually have to cross, known as the 400-series highways.

Yesterday, Andrew, on his Monkey Martian site, covered some of the biggest challenges we face in the suburbs. His advice is worth a read for someone starting out, or even an old pro, especially if you only venture out of the core once in a while. If you haven't read his site before, Andrew is one of the few people in York Region who chose to own a bike instead of a car.

On Expressway crossings:

I find it best to keep my cool, be very aware of where I’m positioned and take the lane where necessary. This isn’t always easy to do. It is sometime difficult to even position yourself out in the lane if the traffic is particularly heavy and fast moving. I use a helmet mounted mirror to look for gaps, and do lots and lots of shoulder checks.

On Trucks: