The way points of this bicycle route:
Bridge over Allen Road.
Frequent speed bumps and stop signs mean that bikes can often go faster than cars along this street.
Traffic behaviour can get a bit confused in this round-about, but it usually isn't bad.
Bridge over Bathurst St. Nice!
Stop lights. The road is a bit rough going down the hill south of Eglinton until Vesta Dr.
The road is in extremely rough condition along here. Sometimes I cut down spadina or other side streets to avoid the turbulence.
Very rough condition roads along this stretch. Sometimes I even go onto the sidewalk to avoid the road if there are no pedestrians in sight.
Stop lights here, and easy crossing of streetcar tracks.
Steep downhill starts here. Easy to get up to 40km/hour, despite the turns.
Sharp, but not too difficult, corner. The road continues downhill and becomes one-way at this point.
Speed bumps slow cars at the bottom of the hill here. Bikes sail by.
On the way back home (north), you take the fork to the right to go up the hill via Poplar Plains Rd.
Probably the trickiest corner on this route. A stop sign holds traffic in two directions, but the northbound traffic has no stop sign. Car traffic is often considerably backed up here.
Bridge under railway tracks now has dedicated bike lanes in both directions.
Stop lights.
Subway Sandwich shop here: a good place to stop to grab a quick and portable lunch if I haven't got one with me.
Delivery trucks and cars often thoughtlessly stop in the bike lanes before and after this busy intersection, making things frequently anxious. This is the most annoying part of this route.
I stop here. My office is on New St. However, the bike lane continues and curves south onto Bay street. Bay street is a relatively good route downtown as the right most lane is dedicated to bikes and cabs most of the day. (Watch out for cabs though, they can be insane!)
Awkwardly placed stop sign here right at the foot of a steep hill upwards. Most bikes ignore the stop sign to keep up momentum. (The stop is a 3 way, and bikes don't actually cross the path of any traffic on the right side.)
I often come around this corner not having seen anyone on the hill up to this point and find slow struggling bikers here. People seem to think the hill is going to end at this corner (it seems to smooth out at the bend), but in fact it is only the half way point.
Top of the steep hill. Lots of slowed down, out of breath people here. But some of us like to keep up our cadence and pass on.
I've seen a lot of road bikers turn left here to go back down Russell Hill and then back up the Poplar Plains hill. It's a short, fast, moderately demanding circuit.
There are raised streetcar tracks in the middle of St Clair. The raised portion is basically the height of a curb, so it's not difficult to get a bike over and go left; cars however have no choice but to turn right.
Interesting 5-way intersection at the top of a bit of a hill. There are usually a few slightly confused cars going east-west.
Uphill starts here. Grade is not steep, but it can be a strain if racing to catch the short duration green light at Eglinton.
Fast "merge" corner avoids stop sign.
After the bridge over Allen Road, a pathway runs north-south parallel to the sunken highway.
The back way into my building. There is also a Soby's grocery store here, conveniently.
Welcome to Bikely, take a step by step tour of this path:
Press Start Tour - then use the navigation buttons below to move along the path.
This is my commute to and from work most days. It is a fast, green, mostly pleasant route that mostly avoids major intersections. It is mostly downhill going south, with some nice up-hills going north. I actually like the up-hills after work. The exertion perhaps relieves stress.
Tagged with: Commute, Onroad, Low traffic
