Well, I did it. I biked downtown from Weston.
Time of departure from back door of house: 2:24pm.
Time of arrival at
Not bad.
What WAS bad was the ride from Weston to St. Clair. After St. Clair there were lots of little side-roads that I knew, and I’m comfortable on Bloor, so it was fine. But before that? These are the roads where cyclists go to die. It was like the fulfillment of a death wish. Bike-rider suicide. So. Bad. Every single driver on the road seemed to think GTA stood for Grand Theft Auto. Jane and Rogers were particularly hazardous, but everywhere were ass-bruising potholes, billions of shards of broken glass littering the streets, and grit-spitting transport trucks.
Why are there no freaking bike lanes in Toronto? Why?
I took Jane south to Trethewey, and then headed east past Black Creek Drive until Trethewey turned into Keele, then went too far south to a dead end by the train tracks and had to double back to Rogers Road, went back west, got on Weston road, and headed south. After hitting St. Clair West I had my bearings again, so I turned east onto Dundas West, and wound south towards Bloor down the little Indian Road sidestreets. Then straight east along Bloor until Spadina and I was home free. My route looked like this.
Given the amount of meandering I did, I think I could do it faster next time, and probably get myself down to University and Dundas in just over an hour, which would make biking a feasible morning exercise (not an evening one, though – downhill after waking up is one thing, uphill after a day at work is quite another). Except for the grossness of showing up to work sweaty and giving myself a sponge bath in the washroom. And, of course, the PSYCHO KILLER DRIVERS TRYING TO HUNT ME LIKE A DOG.
Another thought I had as I was gasping for air, trying to ascend the hill at Keele and St. Clair, was that perhaps I should learn how to use gears. I’ve heard from
That’s all for now, folks. Have a good Sunday!
People read my lj?
Hey, at least you still have feeling in your “unit”. See‘s journal for an explanation of that comment.
…you should learn how to use gears…..
-caellum
The reason (IMO FWIW) there’s no bike lanes in Toronto is there’s no room. There’s barely enough room for the cars that are rushing around like mad.
It’s one of the main reasons I moved back out to the ‘Sauga. Lots of bike lanes out there (plus parking).
All I know tho is that the drives back home are much better than the ones down here in S.Fl. :/
That’s quite a trip on the bike. I’ve been riding my bike through the streets of TO for over 15 years now and I’ve noticed that in the last couple of years, the drivers have become worse. When I first started riding, they were really bad, then they seemed to improve. There were less doors opening in my path, not as many people cutting me off when they made a right turn. It was good! but now, alas, no. they are back to their dangerous ways.
BTW, for a good route you should check out the free map from the city of Toronto. http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/map/index.htm There seems to be an off road bike route that starts just west of you just north of Church on Weston Rd. It goes through the park system all the way south to the Martin Goodman trail by the lake. – you can get off the trail at various other streets before that though, including just above Bloor Street by Old Mill/Jane station. Riding through parks – much nicer than the streets up there! It may even be a nice route to go home by. The hills don’t seem as nasty when you are surrounded by green.
Always good to get encouraging feedback! I will check out your cycling map link, but I think I need to persist in my nasty, gritty route since speed is of the essence if I am going to try to do this to work on a morning. The detour down the Humber and along Lakeshore, while absolutely gorgeous as trails go (I love water trails), will add a fair chunk of time to my travel.
Thanks, J!
Will work on learning gears. Will celebrate not having “unit” to benumb.
Will mourn loss of feelings other than pain in my “rear unit”, aka caboose.
The detour down the Humber and along Lakeshore, while absolutely gorgeous as trails go (I love water trails), will add a fair chunk of time to my travel.
Well, seeing as there are no traffic lights to stop for and you can go as fast as you like since there are no cars to look out for and it’s pretty much a straight shot down to Jane and Bloor and you don’t have to go all the way down to the lake, in fact you can get off the trail right before Bloor street and take Bloor the rest of the way, I think all things considered, this would be the much faster route.