What's your Commute?

[joe]

What's your route?

[Tory]

Royal York Station, bloor, ossignton, harbord, uoft.

[Todd Tyrtle]

Mine varies as I am a consultant that works for a number of clients. My first commute was from the Yonge and Eglinton area up to Dufferin and Steeles. (Link here). I tried going from the same general area out Bloor to a client in Mississauga but only had that client for a short time so I did that only once. Other times my commute is from the bedroom to the home office.

In a couple weeks my commute will be from Old Town Quebec City to the Ste-Foy Technological Park. I may be going by bus/car for a while, though, as they had a ton of snow when I visited last week and seem to get anywhere between 10-30 cm ever few days as of late. As I am going by train I'll be taking my folding bike this time around which hasn't the most winter-friendly tires. So it may be mid to late March before I really get that commute going. Of course that all depends on how the season goes and how well taken care of the roads are. This'll be my first trip taking the folding bike on VIA as well - I have my fingers crossed that they'll let me on but as I'm carrying it in a bag I don't expect any trouble.

[joe]

I start out at Gerrard & Coxwell and take Gerrard west until around River, when I swing up through the quiet and calm streets of cabbagetown to Carlton - and then take that to the College & Bay area.

Generally the reverse on the way home, but I sometimes go north and take the Viaduct and the Danforth for some variety. :)

[Psyminh]

I sadly have to work in Mississauga, so when the weather gets nice I'll be biking at MOST once or twice a week. I start out at Dupont and Dovercourt, bike west along Dundas West to Kipling, jump off and take a trail along the Humber River to Eglinton, the head west and a bit north on a number of roads in Mississauga, eventually ending up in Meadowvale. Sucks, but it's quite the workout!

[Jay Morrison]

Coxwell & Sammon to Pape - south to Fulton - west to Jackman - south to Butternut - west to Playter - south to Bayfield - southwest to Pretoria - west to Cambridge - south to Bloor Viaduct - west to Sherbourne - south to Shuter - west to Yonge - south to Richmond - west to Bay.

[Pouya]

Finch and Yonge to St. George and Bloor.

[Todd Tyrtle]

Cross-posted to "Best Route to get to..." (sorry if that bugs anyone) since both threads have different users following.

Back in Toronto for a week and working in Concord - anyone ever go from Yonge & St. Clair area to Jane and Langstaff? I notice that there's not much in the way of east/west connecting routes so I'm thinking of taking Route 35 on map (Duplex area), crossing 401 at Avenue Rd (done that before many times - yuck!) then side streets to Wilmington then to Finch and Dufferin. Up Dufferin to Supertest, through York U to Steeles to Jane to cross 407 (again, Yuck! As much as I hate the idea I think I'll be using the sidewalk for much of that stretch) then Interchange Way to side streets. Anyone have any better ideas?

[Todd Tyrtle]

OK - So I've done the downtown to Jane & Langstaff twice now. A few observations:

- It went *much* faster than I thought - only 90 min or so.

- As I have heard horror stories about suburban drivers I wore one of those goofy orange construction vests. It seemed to make a HUGE difference in how much space I was given in passing. Drivers often gave me 2-3 metres - basically as far as they could get away from me. I'm guessing it's not about visibility but dorkiness. If there was any chance the huge dorkiness of the vest was contagious they didn't want to risk infection.

- Dufferin & Finch to Supertest SUCKED and I may raise the ire of folks here but I used the (totally empty) sidewalk. Same was true from roughly Keele & Steeles to Jane & Interchange Way. Fortunately the sidewalk was mostly a bike lane in function anyway as there were many bikes but only 1-2 pedestrians each trip. What I *do* notice is how easy it would be to make a long dedicated, physically separated east/west bike lane for much of Steeles. Roads are wide, median is wide, and sidewalk has lots of space on either side. Telephone poles would have to be moved but other than that it seems easy. Now would people use it? Who knows. I usually passed 5-6 people each way.

- I used to go the same route to Dufferin & Steeles last summer and was almost always the only cyclist from Wilmington and Sheppard to Dufferin & Steeles. Lots more cyclists now. Was in a group of three at Finch and Dufferin.

- Cycling that far makes me ravenously hungry. I literally need a meal before leaving and a meal after I get to my destination.

And now our office is moving near the Burlington GO station. So I'm probably going to look at selling my current full-size Dahon Cadenza folding bike and getting something more portable like a BIke Friday Tikit so I can easily take it on the GO train.

One last day in Toronto and then I'm back on the road again for 3 weeks. Can't wait to spend some extended time locally...

[Peter]

My commute starts from Kipling/Lakeshore, go west to Mississauga Rd, turn north, go west at Indian Rd., west at South Sheridan Way, North at Erin Mills Rd., west at North Sheridan Way, cross Winston Churchill and go through the AMC theatre parking lot to Bristol Circle, then a bit north on Winston Park drive... 19KM.

[Laurel]

mine's teeny compared to everyone else!
dundas and ossington to yonge/dundas, or gerrard/church.

[Todd Tyrtle]

New route this week. Packed the folding bike in a suitcase and I've taken it on a business trip to Delta, BC. My client is about 15 km from the hotel. There's about a 0.5 km ride on a busy street followed by about 2 km on a gravel path along Boundary Bay before I wind up on an 8km farm road. A couple other small farm roads take me finally to a relatively busy street about 2 min from work. Speed limit there is 80kph but there's a nice wide bike lane.

Overall my impressions of this relatively rural area have been *very* favourable. Drivers pass me and give me the full lane almost all the time and are totally courteous. nearly every street has a wide curb lane that has been converted into a bike lane. Buses all have racks on them and they are widely used with people using them here to commute to downtown Vancouver. Those who want to ride in to Vancouver can do it with what appear to be 100% bike lane lined streets (except for a tunnel that does not allow bikes but has a shuttle bus).

It's a real vision of where we could be in the future. Very inspiring.

[Matt Crane]

Evans/Islington to queensway then east on queen st until the don valley trail. Then I take the trail to don mills, probally the nicest part of my commute, and then north on don mills to york mills. I think about 27km total. Pretty much as much time as it would take to do ttc the same distance. Decided to do it for april/may until I move residence and it's worked out very well so far, I feel fantastic at work these days.