ZoraName / Occupation / Age
Zoraida Anaya/School Administrator/42

What do you use your bike for?
Commuting/errands/tourism

How often do you ride?
I ride at least 3 times/week in the Spring/Summer/Fall.

How long have you been commuting by bicycle and what made you decide to do it?
I have been commuting for about 4 years. A sense of freedom and the ability to control my commuting time are the main reasons to ride my bicycle.

Can you give a brief description of your commute route?
My weekday rides start at Yonge & Eglinton and I follow Route 35 South down to University of Toronto's downtown campus.

My weekend routes are longer and try to get ride out of town.

What's the best thing about commuting by bicycle?
Unlike drivers, we cyclists have more control of our vehicle. For instance, if we decide to get off our bike and walk it, we can do it at any time. We are not stuck on traffic.

We're free.

What is your favorite route?
My favourite route is number 39 heading North.

What have you learned that you wish you knew when you first started commuting?
I wished I had known there are bicycle thieves.

Any advice for new riders?
Don't leave home without your U-lock...

What do you like about biking in Toronto?
The flatness of the terrain.

What do you dislike?
The poor development of the bike lanes.

What is your favorite kit/clothing/gadget?
My favourite gadget is my gloves. They make riding very comfortable.

Helmet, or no helmet?
Rarely without a helmet.

Bike lane or no bike lane?
I prefer bike lane but it not always possible.

Here's a posting of near daily cycling news from across the country, and sometimes
interesting things from around the world. If I missed a worthy piece, please pass it on
to me
. As always, comments welcome.

Local

Regional

Canada

More News...

Away

Gadgets and Gizmos

The Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair will be announcing today that the police have now discovered the Internet, as far as bike registrations are concerned. An online bike registration is now available for Toronto cyclists to enter their bike's details into the database.

I've wondered about how many average cyclists have actually registered their bikes with their local police station. I haven't even done it myself (until now), though I have always kept a copy of the serial number, make, model, year and colour around to report to the police in the unfortunate event. The Globe and Mail reports that many more cyclists register than I would have expected:

Currently, 50,000 bikes are registered in police files. About 3,000 people a year download the current registration form and mail it in, or hand-deliver it to a police station.

Still, 50,000 is not that many when you consider that almost every household in Toronto likely has at least one bike, no matter how dusty and dilapidated.

Hopefully, the registration can at least increase the rate at which bikes are returned to the rightful owner. Currently 4000 bikes are stolen yearly and 1000 are turned in to police. The article doesn't mention how many are returned to the owners, but I suspect that it isn't a very high number. I've been to the Police auctions and seen many, many bikes.

By the way, I wonder what happens if you sell your bike and the new owner reports it stolen? Is there some way to transfer ownership online?