Bike Town

Toronto definitely has a 'bike culture' with people of all ages using pedal power to get around the neighborhoods or commute to work. Throughout the city, there are locked bikes everywhere on designated bike racks and locking posts as well as to fences, city sign posts, and residential porches and balconies. A bike left unattended for too long of a period may, unfortunately, become spare parts for someone else. Streets marked for bike usage always seem to have a slow, by vehicle standards, but steady flow of cyclist, one at a time or in small groups, which becomes heavier during the commute hours when some riders may aggressively take the entire car lane. In the past three years, Toronto's bike sharing program, known as BIXI, has grown to encompass 80 stations within the city core and 1,000 bikes. There's even a smart phone APP to help users find bike sharing stations and availability information. According to the owner of our apartment, bike usage is highest during the summer months when the weather is nice and despite local complaints of traffic congestion, it's drivers beware because bicycles rule on these city streets. Today we caught subway to Rancesvalles Street, or Rancy as locals would say, a recently revitalized area of shops, bakeries, and eateries popular with the locals on weekends several miles west of downtown and close to High Park, Toronto's largest public park and for Kay and I, reminiscence of Sacramento's own William Land Park.