The cycling community in Toronto continues to grow – and with that, so does the demand for a safe cycling network. As a Scarborough resident, I, along with thousands of others, want healthy transportation options to and from home, work, schools, parks, and everywhere in between. Our Connect Scarborough campaign asks for a network of connected, protected bike lanes in Scarborough.
Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park are two vibrant neighbourhoods surrounded by barriers; the Don Valley forks at their centre, cutting them off in the south, east, and from each other. They’re further hemmed in by the rail corridor in the west.
The Yonge Loves Bikes campaign started with the idea to bring protected bike lanes to Uptown, Midtown, and Downtown Yonge Street. The communities saw localized campaign work happening to bring a bold cycling network to Yonge; we pushed for REimagine Yonge in North York, advocated for streetscape designs and ActiveTO in Midtown, and supported a vision for Yonge TOmorrow that included bike lanes downtown.
In recent years, we have focused on building out the spine of our cycling network to bring you bike lanes on three major roads: Bloor Street, Danforth Avenue, and Yonge Street. After years of tireless work with countless people and organizations, as of last week, bike lanes have been installed on all three of these roads! Politicians, businesses, and residents alike have all begun to see that bike lanes help things work better for everyone on our streets.
And yet, vast parts of our city do not have safe places to ride.
The riding season is in full swing and while Cycle Toronto is in the midst of rolling out exciting programs for Bike Month and supporting ActiveTO road openings and temporary bike lanes, we wanted to pause and provide you with an update about Move365; our program centred on a holistic approach for tackling key active transportation issues in the city.
Bike Share Toronto station at the University of Toronto Scarborough
On Sunday, May 16 — the first weekend that ActiveTO opened Lake Shore Boulevard W in 2021 — Bike Share set a new single day record of over 27,000 rides! The Bike Boom is still going strong and we aim to keep it that way.
Following one year of parental leave, our Executive Director, Keagan Gartz, has just returned to the virtual office. After taking many family bike rides and coming together with her neighbourhood for physically distant concerts to get her through the year, she’s seeing our streets and our city in a whole new way.
Now that she’s back at Cycle Toronto, Keagan shared what she’s been reflecting on most from 2020:
Thank you. Together we accomplished a lot this year. Without your continued support we would not have been able to:
Our commitment to Move365 is about more than bike lanes. It’s about building relationships and supporting people. With bike lanes being removed from Brimley Road in Scarborough this past week, I’m reminded of the bike lane removals of Pharmacy Avenue and Birchmount Road in 2011.
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