Toronto
Photos by Gabi Sarlay www.flickr.com/photos/gabifoto
As I write this, wary Torontonians are in alert mode, fearing a walkout by Toronto Transit Commission employees that could grind the city's commuters to a halt. City council, ever-savvy to its citizens, has proposed a number of measures to keep traffic moving in the event of TTC labour action. Much to the delight of Toronto's swelling ranks of cyclists, one such idea will open up curb lanes on downtown streets to cyclists as provisional bike lanes.
Just imagine: a city under transit lockdown, overrun with pedestrians. If the strike goes ahead, residents of Canada's largest city will undoubtedly hear a lot of grumbling. Still, they'll see and hear a jingling, gear-shifting parade, celebrating the town's last-ditch recognition of its bike culture as a vital, indispensable presence - not to mention a saving grace.
That's the thing about Toronto. There is a preconception everywhere north, east, or west of the city that Toronto is an innavigable concrete jungle, chock-a-block with belching tailpipes and raging motorists. How, one may ask, could cycling have become the vibrant movement that the cyclists of Toronto have created?
Toronto, for all its modest greys and blinding winter whites, has never been greener. After the misadventure of former mayor Mel Lastman's reign, during which car-happy infrastructure was funded with fanboy enthusiasm, there is a new progressive mindset prevalent among cyclists and pedestrians. With ecological concerns at the forefront of popular concern, as the city's widespread observance of Earth Hour in March can attest, a shift in thinking has led to a pedal-powered renaissance.
It also doesn't hurt that biking around Toronto is really, really fun.
"Cycling is super fast," says Janet Attard, a local artist and champion of Toronto bike culture. "Bicycles open the whole city up. Uptown, downtown, east, west; you can get anywhere by bicycle!" With the exception of a few thigh-grinders, the low, arcing grades of the city's streets mean that cyclists - not motorists - tend to be the speedy ones. "I'm faster than the TTC even on my Canadian Tire CCM bike," says Bertie Low-Ring, a Toronto-area teacher. "And not because I'm an awesome rider." It's not uncommon to see cruisers and ten-speeds weaving through gridlocked traffic on a Monday morning, sailing to work in the time it takes to pay the fare at the Bloor Street subway station.
Toronto bikers are an intrepid, resolute lot. The joke that a Toronto year consists of eight months of winter and four months of construction resonates among cyclists, who are most affected by the driving sleet and arctic vortices of the darker months. During the summer, when many of the city's arteries are mazes of roadwork in response to the snow's erosive run-off, cyclists take to the back paths, trails, and laneways, resulting in two Torontos - one for bikers, another for everyone else. "I love riding Spadina Avenue and Spadina Road," says Attard. "I love the sights that I see, like the beautiful old buildings of the University of Toronto, the old Victorian houses, the traffic jams of Chinatown, or the fringe of Kensington Market." A city of neighbourhoods first and a metropolis second, the impact of getting around free of the grid can't possibly be overstated, and it often shows in the rider.
There's a plucky, do-it-yourself independence that characterizes Toronto bike culture, largely populated by the city's thriving arts community. Referring to 401 Richmond Street West, showcasing some of Toronto's best artists, Attard says, "The building is overflowing with bicycle people, who, for some reason, are also the creative people of Toronto. Musicians, filmmakers, artists, and even fashion designers all travel by bicycle." Like the chicken-or-the-egg question, it's hard to tell if the DIY spirit typical of Toronto cyclists is a result of a built-in predisposition to stunning creativity, but its expression is seen as much in wicker-built frames or floral handlebars as on a canvas or stage. "Bicycles and creativity," Attard continues, "seem to go hand-in-hand."
You'll see this signature independence expressed during Pedestrian Sundays, Kensington Market's summer-long festival during which the bustling haven for artisans is closed to all but foot traffic and bikes. Free bike repairs for the cycling public are included among P.S. Kensington's myriad performers and musicians. A little further west, Bike Pirates, an autonomous collective on Bathurst, encourages the community to recycle unused junkers.
Recently, that community came together in an overwhelming display of support for Duke's Cycle, one of the city's most venerable independent bike shops, lost to a fire on February 20. Describing the management of 401 Richmond, Attard could have easily been talking about the greater "Cycling Family" of Toronto as a whole. "They actually do the good deeds," she says, "not like other groups that just seem to talk about change. What more can I say? I have found my paradise!" ----------