July 13, 2021 - In recent years, we have focused on building out the spine of our cycling network to bring you bike lanes on three major roads: Bloor Street, Danforth Avenue, and Yonge Street. After years of tireless work with countless people and organizations, as of last week, bike lanes have been installed on all three of these roads! Politicians, businesses, and residents alike have all begun to see that bike lanes help things work better for everyone on our streets.
And yet, vast parts of our city do not have safe places to ride.
Our Move365 Connect campaign envisions safe, healthy, and sustainable cycling networks for all of Toronto.
The Cycle Toronto team is excited to bring you in on the newest facet of our Move365 vision to transform how communities around Toronto move and connect to each other.
Imagine being able to ride a bike safely with your entire family from Etobicoke to Scarborough and from North York to Lake Ontario. With protected bike lanes it would be a fun, easy, and healthy experience getting to school, the grocery store, or your favourite dinner spot.
Move365 Connect
The projects we have selected are building on our current Move365 partnerships which have potential to be implemented in the next few years, as well as community support. As we partner with more organizations and people through Move365 we’ll grow our campaigns beyond these routes into even more areas of the city.
Connect neighbourhoods and areas
Connect Scarborough: Bringing a network of connected, protected bike lanes on major roads in Scarborough is a priority. Our campaigns in Eglinton Avenue, Kingston Road, and Danforth are the start of that vision.
Connect Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park: Start by connecting the two neighbourhoods to each other with protected bike lanes on Overlea Boulevard. Then connect them to a citywide cycling-friendly network beyond.
Connect Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park
New corridors, new campaigns
Eglinton for Everyone: Completing protected bike lanes now — by the time the LRT opens in 2022 — will allow the street to become a place for people of all ages and abilities to choose how they want to move — by bike, on foot, with a mobility device, on transit, or in a car.
Connect Kingston: Kingston Road plays a key role in completing the picture of a cycling network in Scarborough, connecting to future north-south routes and other proposed projects such as Danforth and Eglinton.
Connect Sheppard: Building out from our success on ReImagine Yonge Street in North York, Sheppard Avenue, would provide a vital east-west route to many destinations, transit, and the Don Valley.
Extend, connect, improve; our first campaigns refreshed
Connect Bloor: We’ve seen how successful bike lanes on Bloor have been — to connect Etobicoke and extend the Bloor bike lanes west to Six Points (Kipling Avenue).
Connect Danforth: The complete street with protected bike lanes on Danforth has been a major success — now we need to make it permanent and extend it east into Scarborough to Kingston Road.
Connect Yonge: Bike lanes are on the ground in Midtown. They’re on the way Uptown and Downtown. It’s time to connect from North York right down to the waterfront.
After reading this, I’m sure you are as energized as I am to help make these projects a reality. If you want to get involved beyond the petitions, you can become a member, sign up to become a volunteer for one of our campaign working groups, and most importantly sign the petitions and share the campaigns with a friend!
We have a long road ahead of us; but with constant collaboration, advocacy work, and the generous support of our members, donors, and volunteers, together we can build towards a more connected, healthy, and sustainable city for all.
Let’s keep growing cycling in Toronto together,
Keagan Gartz
Executive Director
