General cycling issues (Is Toronto bike friendly?)

[Skeezix]

How are thousands of people stranded by a subway outage supposed to get on bikes and start biking around the subway outage? People don't usually bring bikes with them on the subway.

You realize that's not what @the lemur was saying, right? He wasn't suggesting that thousands of people stuck in a stopped subway will all have bikes on them and cycle the rest of the way. He was clearly saying that one big attraction of cycling is avoiding subway outages.

 

[ShonTron]

Thanks for that point. I've been away from Toronto for five years, and taken the UPX up to Weston from Bloor quite a few times to run a wonderful dog (I borrow him, he loves it, it's an *adventure*) down the Humber to the waterfront and then east along the lake. I'd thought to take him north for a change, but the idea of dragging a dog on a leash (I put him on the leash on the roads) while walking a bike on that really awful stretch of Weston Rd makes my intuitive hesitation correct. I've looked from the GO train many times to see if there's a path under the new bridge, but can't see one. The only consolation was with my last dog (I'm between dogs now, so borrow this one) was the ice-cream place just before heading west down to the Humber after getting north of the bridge. My last dog used to get one every time we went past there. Memories....

For anyone wondering, taking the GO train (dogs only allowed on the UPX) up to Malton allows you to wind your way up to the Claireville Reservoir on some local trails to attain the *Source of the Humber Trail*! Cycling down the northern stretch five years ago, there is very little traffic on the path, dear sightings are common, the occasional one will even run with you, but they're skittish, keep on the brakes. If you don't have the time to break-free to do real distance cycling out of town, but need a buzz, it's a good warm-up run. If you take the UPX, get off at Weston, and the path is just across Weston Road and down the valley.

Two issues with the Humber Trail that have made that section very difficult to fix:

1. Private ownership in that section extends right down to the Humber River itself, unlike City of Toronto or TRCA lands elsewhere along the ravine.
2. The route that would have to be built, due to the tight cliff, would have to be across the river to the Weston Golf and Country Club. So you'd have to build a new bridge and either negotiate public access or expropriate. I think golf courses in our ravines are a waste of great space, but that's the deal. The new extension to the north side of St. Philips Road is an improvement over the older, longer detour at Church Street.

You might be happy to know that the TRCA is building an extension near Claireville Dam that would go through and around the Indian Road campground and Wild Water Kingdom that will provide a direct access to Claireville Conservation Area and into Brampton.

 

[Napoleon]

Two issues with the Humber Trail that have made that section very difficult to fix:

1. Private ownership in that section extends right down to the Humber River itself, unlike City of Toronto or TRCA lands elsewhere along the ravine.
2. The route that would have to be built, due to the tight cliff, would have to be across the river to the Weston Golf and Country Club. So you'd have to build a new bridge and either negotiate public access or expropriate. I think golf courses in our ravines are a waste of great space, but that's the deal. The new extension to the north side of St. Philips Road is an improvement over the older, longer detour at Church Street.

You might be happy to know that the TRCA is building an extension near Claireville Dam that would go through and around the Indian Road campground and Wild Water Kingdom that will provide a direct access to Claireville Conservation Area and into Brampton.

The Humber trail is by far one of my favorite places to cycle (just did it yesterday); however, the detour onto Weston road is indeed annoying and dangerous. It doesn't seem that a solution for closing that gap will be reached any time soon. There's a bit of construction on the trail right now as well north of Eglinton in two spots.

 

[ShonTron]

The Humber trail is by far one of my favorite places to cycle (just did it yesterday); however, the detour onto Weston road is indeed annoying and dangerous. It doesn't seem that a solution for closing that gap will be reached any time soon. There's a bit of construction on the trail right now as well north of Eglinton in two spots.

I heard that there was work near Raymore Park that had the trail closed. Is it easy to get around now? I'm thinking about riding it again on one of the next few weekends.

 

[salsa]

You might be happy to know that the TRCA is building an extension near Claireville Dam that would go through and around the Indian Road campground and Wild Water Kingdom that will provide a direct access to Claireville Conservation Area and into Brampton.

Interesting. Is there a website where I can learn more about it?

I heard that there was work near Raymore Park that had the trail closed. Is it easy to get around now? I'm thinking about riding it again on one of the next few weekends.

As of yesterday, there is still construction. However it's not difficult to get around it, certainly better than the construction near Scarlett Rd & Eglinton.

 

[ShonTron]

Interesting. Is there a website where I can learn more about it?

Here's a City of Brampton document that discusses some of what TRCA is doing. https://www.brampton.ca/EN/City-Hall/meetings-agendas/PDD Committee 2010/20131209pdd_G1.pdf

I emailed TRCA last fall to find out if cycling through the conservation area from Gorewood Road was permitted, and got this reply:

Yes this is permitted. Once the pipeline work is complete there will be a connection right past the dam at ILC [Indian Line Campground] and on through right down to Toronto.
​

As of yesterday, there is still construction. However it's not difficult to get around it, certainly better than the construction near Scarlett Rd & Eglinton.

What's going on at Scarlett and Eglinton? Is that difficult to navigate around?

 

[the lemur]

How are thousands of people stranded by a subway outage supposed to get on bikes and start biking around the subway outage? People don't usually bring bikes with them on the subway.

The solution is to build more subway lines, and improve the existing subway system.

Thanks for completely misconstruing my point, McKinnon.

Which was that for all the convenience and safety of the subway that you tout, transit isn't perfect either. If it's not the sudden and unexplained service interruptions or the deficient replacement service, it's the crowding, the temperature (last Thursday was sunny and slightly warm - did they turn on the AC in trains on either side of the interruption? Hell no), the food odours, body odours, the panhandlers, disturbed individuals, the what-are-y0u-looking-at types, drunks, PDAs, etc.

I didn't wish I'd brought a bike. I kind of saw the value of Bixi as I walked from Old Mill to Dundas West to get to Sherbourne, but the nearest dock was at Euclid. I considered taking the UP to Union, as the TTC was suggesting, since the fare would be TTC fare, but it would be going out of my way, as much as I like the UP experience.

I'm all for improving the subway system, but whether a new subway line would have helped depends on the alignment.

 

[the lemur]

You realize that's not what @the lemur was saying, right? He wasn't suggesting that thousands of people stuck in a stopped subway will all have bikes on them and cycle the rest of the way. He was clearly saying that one big attraction of cycling is avoiding subway outages.

Thank you. Even if I did have a bike with me, it wouldn't have helped much, since I was picking up two kids.

 

[salsa]

What's going on at Scarlett and Eglinton? Is that difficult to navigate around?

It's a bit north of Eglinton, at the spot where the trail begins to parallel Scarlett Rd after it makes a steep climb out of the valley. A small section of it is closed for construction including some of the grass between the trail and sidewalk. Cyclists have to get onto the sidewalk, then descend down the steep grassy berm (roughly where the 2nd lamp post is) to get around it. It's quite annoying, but it's not worth allowing it to spoil your cycling plans.

 

[ADRM]

How are thousands of people stranded by a subway outage supposed to get on bikes and start biking around the subway outage? People don't usually bring bikes with them on the subway.

The solution is to build more subway lines, and improve the existing subway system.

That's literally the perfect situation in which to use a bike share bike.

 

[steveintoronto]

I heard that there was work near Raymore Park that had the trail closed. Is it easy to get around now? I'm thinking about riding it again on one of the next few weekends.

Did it today again with dog friend! (It's a really safe run for well-behaved dogs off-leash, with on-leash at crucial section next to or crossing roads) Ironically, they have signs up facing southbound stating that the trail is "Closed to pedestrians and cyclists"....and yet they have a detour around it???

One caution, if you go right next to the fenced-off path, they've hacked back the shrubs to the side of it, such that I got quite a poke in my leg from the sharp 'stakes' left sticking out of the ground. Fortunately, doggie loves blood, and he licked it clean for me. Bless his little heart. So watch your step through there, and there's absolutely no problem getting through. Oddly, not many people out today or Friday when I last did it with dog. Absolutely no problem with dog and bike on UPX, save that all the GO Presto card checkers were out of service at Bloor, had to use the UPX ones, first time. No problem at all. I'm officially a UPX traveller instead of a GO interloper now.

 

[steveintoronto]

What's going on at Scarlett and Eglinton? Is that difficult to navigate around?

(Correction: I thought I read one poster describing a situation south of the creek reconstruction detour. I'm unaware of one south of the excellent pic Salsa posts. )
I didn't notice that on Friday, but today, to make the trip more adventurous for the dog, and not to have to put him on leash more than absolutely necessary (and crossing Eg is one of those situations) we went *under* the bridge, I gave him the dignity of leading the way...lol...and it's dirt path, and on the southern side of the bridge, quite steep and precarious, but watch your footing and you'll be OK. I wouldn't do it with full-tilt road cycling shoes, but if you have the off-road type (with some traction on the bottom, and a little flexibility) you'll be fine. I notice more people are walking their dogs off-leash, and almost all if not all today and recently were very well-behaved. People with their kids learning to cycle on the trails I can't say the same for. I wouldn't put my kid (let alone the dog, who has to follow instructions) in danger like that without having an understanding of the risks. I'm careful along those trails, a lot of 'canaries' and 'morons' aren't.

Edit to Add: RE: Extension of West Humber Trail: It's been five years + since I did the Malton Station thing, and there's a *beaten path* that takes you under the 427, albeit it's rough in spots (over coarse gravel under the bridge, you have to walk the bike) but perfectly passable, unless they've blocked it off in the interim.

I'm now more intrigued than ever to see what the latest status is and I'll inform the forum.

 

[W. K. Lis]

That's literally the perfect situation in which to use a bike share bike.

Except that there are little or no bike sharing stations near their final destinations. Where are the bikes stations near Scarlett Road & Eglinton Avenue West, for example? None.

 

[ADRM]

Well, yes, not every transit breakdown will occur precisely underneath or beside a bike share station, but I couldn't pass up on opportunity to disprove some generally really bunk anti-bike reasoning.

 

[ShonTron]

I didn't notice that on Friday, but today, to make the trip more adventurous for the dog, and not to have to put him on leash more than absolutely necessary (and crossing Eg is one of those situations) we went *under* the bridge, I gave him the dignity of leading the way...lol...and it's dirt path, and on the southern side of the bridge, quite steep and precarious, but watch your footing and you'll be OK. I wouldn't do it with full-tilt road cycling shoes, but if you have the off-road type (with some traction on the bottom, and a little flexibility) you'll be fine. I notice more people are walking their dogs off-leash, and almost all if not all today and recently were very well-behaved. People with their kids learning to cycle on the trails I can't say the same for. I wouldn't put my kid (let alone the dog, who has to follow instructions) in danger like that without having an understanding of the risks. I'm careful along those trails, a lot of 'canaries' and 'morons' aren't.

Edit to Add: RE: Extension of West Humber Trail: It's been five years + since I did the Malton Station thing, and there's a *beaten path* that takes you under the 427, albeit it's rough in spots (over coarse gravel under the bridge, you have to walk the bike) but perfectly passable, unless they've blocked it off in the interim.

I'm now more intrigued than ever to see what the latest status is and I'll inform the forum.

The Humber Trail continues paved across Highway 427 and to the dam now. I did it last fall.