Tag: bicycle

• Saturday morning bike ride to the Bluffs

  This morning I got up at 7:30am and met a good friend of mine at the St. Lawrence Market for breakfast.

  Market Street is closed to cars today so it’s pedestrian-only. It should be this way all the time. They had a pig roasting on a spit when I walked by and a big stage set up. 

  Below is a photo of what it looks like. Keep in mind that this photo was taken just after 8:00am, which is why it’s not all that busy, yet.

  

  When Market Street was redone a few years ago, the original vision for the street was for it to be pedestrian-only. But somebody told me that the city didn’t want that. Too bad. It strikes me as a perfect candidate for that.

  After breakfast, we then biked out to the Scarborough Bluffs in the east end of the city. If you click here, you can see the path we took via Strava. It’s only about 15km from downtown. The ride through the Beaches was by far the best stretch. The water was on my right hand side. The pavement was smooth and continuous. And I had George FitzGerald on my headphones for pacing.

  When we got there, this was the view we were presented with:

  

  It honestly doesn’t feel like Toronto. The water is turquoise and there’s a beautiful beach at the bottom of the cliffs. It felt like paradise.

  If you’ve never been to the Scarborough Bluffs, do yourself a favor and get out there on a beautiful summer day. It’s the dog days of summer and Toronto is a magical place right now.

  2015.07.11

• Before & After: Queens Quay Boulevard

  Yesterday I spent the evening walking Toronto’s new Queens Quay Boulevard, which fully reopened this past Friday after a number of years of construction. 

  It is part of Waterfront Toronto’s revitalization efforts and represents a solid decade in the making. West 8 of Rotterdam and DTAH of Toronto won the international design competition for the central waterfront back in 2006. And this past weekend a big component of that vision was unveiled.

  But first, let’s take a look at what Queens Quay Boulevard used to be like. Here’s a Google Streetview image from 2009:

  

  The streetcars ran in the middle of the street. Cars drove on the north and south side on both sides of the tracks. And the sidewalks were fairly small and usually at capacity during the busy summer months. It wasn’t a great street.

  Now here’s a photo that I took yesterday from that same vantage point (2015):

  

  The street has been completely reorganized. On the north side of the streetcar tracks is where the cars now drive in both directions. On the south side of the tracks the lanes of traffic have been replaced with a 2-way bike trail (part of the Martin Goodman Trail). And on both sides the pedestrian areas have been greatly expanded. It’s now a magnificent street.

  If you haven’t yet been down to the new Queens Quay, I would encourage you to check it out on either foot or bicycle. (If you go on bicycle, let me know and I’ll join you.) 

  Toronto may have taken a giant step backwards with its recent decision on the Gardiner East, but we also took a giant step forward with the reopening of Queens Quay Boulevard.

  2015.06.21

• How a 5,000-stall bicycle parking garage works in Delft

  This past February, a new central train station opened up in Delft in the Netherlands. As part of the train station, there’s an underground parking facility for 5,000 bicycles.

  Here’s a video of how it all works:

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuhLv1AN0bE?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

  Isn’t it amazing what you can achieve when you decide to make something a priority?

  2015.06.05

• GoPro city tours

  This past week was Toronto’s first real snowstorm of the season. It was awesome. I love snow. And part of the reason I love it, is because it means snowboarding season is here. Yes, the “mountains” in Ontario suck, but Quebec and Vermont aren’t too far away and every February there is The Annual.

  This year in preparation for the season I decided to splurge on a GoPro camera. We had a lot of fun filming last year in Jackson Hole and, since it looks like we’re going to have close to 10 people at this season’s Annual, I wanted to throw another camera into the mix. Expect another ski and snowboard video sometime in February 2015. We’re heading out to Alberta and British Columbia.

  I also ordered this mount for the camera:

  

  But as I was ordering the camera, I started to think about what else I could use it for. And then it hit me: city tours. One of the things I love to do in the summer is ride my bike around the city and explore. I like to find areas I don’t know very well, find new developments I may have missed, and generally just get to know the city more intimately.

  Being on a bike is really the perfect way to do this. You don’t cover enough ground walking and with driving you simply miss too much of the city. So what I want to do is strap my GoPro to my handle bars and bring you along for these exploratory bike tours. I think it could be a unique way to show you the city – even if you happen to also be from here.

  How does that sound?

  It likely won’t happen until the spring, but if you’re interested in joining me, let me know. I think this could be a lot of fun with a group of city geeks.

  Image: GoPro

  2014.12.13
• [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0&w=500&h=281]

  Want to know how the Dutch design their intersections so that they’re friendly for cyclists? Then check out this video. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you actually care about something and you put thought and intent into it.

  (Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

  2013.11.16
• [vimeo 76207227 w=500 h=281]

  Biking in Toronto means dodging cabs that don’t signal and closely watching parked cars for doors that might be about to open and could catapult you up and into the air. We have little in the way of dedicated cycling infrastructure. In fact, our incompetent mayor actually celebrates the removal of bike lanes. 

  Despite all this, Toronto has a fairly robust cycling culture. There’s no shortage of bearded hipsters riding around on fixies with a U-lock in their back pocket. However, it’s nothing in comparison to the city of Groningen in the Netherlands, where over 50% all of trips are made on a bicycle.

  If you’re into cycling or want to be converted, I recommend you take 15 minutes to watch the above video. The hoards of cyclists are interesting to see and they provide good background on how Groningen got to where it is today. Hint: It involves dramatic measures from a leftist city government.

  (Source: http://player.vimeo.com/)

  2013.10.12