LNahid2000
Senior Member
Cheaper, faster, endorphins make me happy, sunshine makes me happy, I burn calories, I'm not subject to TTC delays, etc. You should try it!
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- Thread starter rp07
- Start date
West End Boy
Active Member
"I strongly suspect" = "I want to believe"
"I do not understand" = "I do not understand" (hooray for honesty)
And points for actually asking a question! But is he ready to actually listen? Cycling is fun, great exercise, convenient, and inexpensive. I have started riding through the winter, and the times I take the subway have usually been the times I get a cold or flu. I have enough money to take the TTC everyday or even own a car (which I don't), but I choose to cycle for the reasons mentioned, in addition to the fact that it's non-polluting.
No one is forcing anyone to cycle, but lots are doing it, and not just downtown (though it's way more bike-able downtown, just as it's more walkable).
pipolchap
Active Member
To add to this, cycling to work is sometimes the highlight of my workday. I feel more energetic over days I don't cycle to work! I tell that to co-workers but they're so set in their ways.
pipolchap
Active Member
For those living in North York and want more bike lanes between Sheppard and Steeles, try this survey!
toronto.ca/reimaginingyonge
toronto.ca/reimaginingyonge
Napoleon
Active Member
Actually, I was inspired by this NYT article:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/...y-equal-45-minutes-of-moderate-exertion/?_r=0
I've been trying to add a couple intense short intervals to my cycling commute. Basically going all out on the one moderate hill. I really do think biking to work, even though it's not a very long commute, helps my fitness.
UserNameToronto
Active Member
My commute does nothing for my fitness, but wonders for my noggin. Sometimes it really is the best part of my day!
facepalming_brooklynite
Active Member
Have you taken the subway at rush hour? I'd much rather move freely at my own pace than be cramped onto an overcrowded train (or streetcar, for that matter).
Also, riding a bike, I can do errands along the way -- stop at a bakery here, at an LCBO there, pick up a takeout menu at some new restaurant, whatever. The TTC will only get me from point A to point B, with no convenient opportunity to stop in between.
In fact, this really should be a bigger argument in the Bloor bike lane debate. If I ride my bike along streets like Harbord, Shaw, Richmond, and Adelaide (or along quiet side streets like Argyle and Robinson), I pass very few businesses. But with a bike lane on Bloor, I'd have lots of incentives to stop along the way. Businesses on Bloor will surely benefit from the increased foot-traffic (or rather pedal-traffic) once the bike lanes are in place.
the lemur
Senior Member
And then there's situations like yesterday's subway outage. Traffic's already heavy, shuttle buses take a long time to materialize or get anywhere and your only real option is to walk with many others to the next working subway station. But yeah, what's the attraction of cycling?
Napoleon
Active Member
And I save over $100 a month on the cost of a TTC pass. It's also faster. My partner doesn't have a bike, and we'll often go somewhere at the same time with him on the TTC. Unless we're going somewhere really far, I beat him every time!
the lemur
Senior Member
I switched from tokens/weekly passes to a Presto card, since I don't use the TTC enough to make a Metropass worthwhile. Biking is often faster and always more direct.
WislaHD
Superstar
Maybe he triggers an avid cyclist like you, but I for one really appreciate the fact that people do respond and defeat his arguments on cycling over and over. It helps me understand my own stance on why cycling is the way forward even better, helps me better explain and argue in favor of bike lanes when faced in real-world conversation with real-world andrewpmk's, and I often end up learning something I did not before. Plus it gives us something to discuss on here.
It is only bad if his repeated falsehoods go unchallenged, which I can happily observe, is not the case in this thread.
steveintoronto
Superstar
I was absolutely appalled at the extremely high index of absolute *idiocy* displayed by many cyclists along the Waterfront Trail today. I have to keep reminding myself: "Better to deal with idiot motorists than idiot cyclists"...since the options of the roads as to choice of streets is considerable, compared to the limited number of bike lanes across the city.
I leave it at that, save to say as an avid distance cyclist, residing and cycling in quite a few nations, I've *never* seen such bad cycling as I saw in Toronto today. In this case, yes, thank God they weren't driving cars. It makes my odds a lot better in road traffic than on the suicide bike lanes.
Edit to Add: Make no mistake, even as a senior, I'm in amazing shape, and I'm a good cyclist, obey traffic rules, look before passing, just use plain common-sense, rebuild my own machine, but what *really* irks me are the weekend warriors in their silly canary outfits who should know better, trying to prove to the world that they're God's gift to Spandex. (I wear padded undershorts, padded crochet backed gloves with real padded leather palms, totally for function and safety, and cut-off jeans over top of the padded undershorts, and yeah, a Brooks Swallow saddle and a forty year old Argos Renovated Reynolds 531. I did 150 km in 6 1/2 hours last summer....but NO canary gayness).
Of course, I have no-one to blame but myself for putting myself amongst the wannabes and losers. This week I'm hitting the rail-trails, where one is glad of other cyclists, since they know their limits and protocol.
I'm so ticked at how dangerous the bike paths are that I think the cops should swarm them and start handing out tickets, albeit there's no specific offence for being a complete moron.
No wonder motorists get so pissed at many of them. And it debases my right to scream at motorists when I get painted by the same brush these a-hole cyclists slop all over the place.
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steveintoronto
Superstar
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.
andrewpmk
Senior Member
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.
Skeezix
Senior Member
More subways and more bike lanes are not mutually exclusive of one another. Bring on both.