Cycling in Toronto- aah!

How much do we miss cycling in our very own city Toronto is directly proportional to how fast the snow starts piling up in the city? Well! Well.

Our very own Toronto, scores among the TOP 10 most liveable city in the world. It is among the few metropolitan cities  which has a mix of pristine lake, sky-scrappers, an exclusive cycling trek and some glorious pathways for pedestrians to offer all in the same vicinity. The fact that in the very beginning of 19th Century there were concentrated efforts taken to improve the quality of the city’s streets for cyclists, shows how Toronto has always been ahead of the time. In early June, we parked our vehicles at the Lakeshore Blvd east and flagged off touring round the city on our bicycles without any formal map route. That’s the thing about unplanned bike tours- it fuels us with an astounding adrenaline rush. We pedaled by the side of beautiful Lake Ontario at the Lakeshore Blvd and unknowingly made our way to South Humber Bike Trail.  Hidden lanes paired with pastoral  houses took us to never-seen-before side of Toronto. All decked up graffiti walls along the way added a perfect icing on our about 8km cycling trek, we then crossed Humber Bay Arch Bridge (also known as Martin Goodman trail). One of the most exotic sight for eyes to spot busy pedestrians, cyclists and kaykers in the same frame. No wonder, this is one of the most popular routes for cyclists in the city.

Humber Arch Bridge. Picture Credits: Yatharth Dave

Interestingly, both these trails fall under Waterfront trail that stretches over 2,600 kilometres along the shores of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake St. Clair, and the Niagara, Detroit, and St. Lawrence Rivers. Our research says that, the Humber River Valley was once a part of an early passage into Huronia which was used regularly by natives and European traders and settlers. There is no iota of doubt that Toronto is most certainly a heaven for all cyclists, however according to Simon Wallace ,a columnist for Toronto Standard, we still have a long way to go.

Picture credits: Vrunda Bhatt

In a fantastic essay penned by him he quotes that back in early 19th century Employers across the city invested in bike infrastructure for their workers (most factories had bike locker rooms) and the owners of the for-profit transit system complained that bikes were stealing much of their business. We cannot have old times back but the least we can do to subside environmental concerns is ride bicycles whenever we can. We believe that we are there, one pedal at a time!

(Information courtsey: Ontariotrail.ca / Toronto.ca)

(All pictures are subject to copyright)

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