Ahhh Toronto’s traffic! Don’t it just make you wanna hop in your car, fight the city’s rush hours, morning and night, to get to your workplace and then back home to Oakville, Mississauga, Markham, or Oshawa? Don’t it make you wanna spend 2 or 3 hours of your waking day driving in stop and go traffic with selfish, or worse, simply BAD drivers who are likely to cause accidents, to go a distance that if there wasn’t any traffic would take you maybe HALF that time to drive? Don’t it make you wanna shell out $15 a day for gas (when gas prices are real, i.e. high)? Don’t it make you wanna roll down your window when you’re bumper to bumper and take a big, deep-down-to-your-toes breath of the exhaust being pumped out by all the idle cars?

No?

I mean, cars are important and all, but I can’t count how many times I’ve looked at a road/highway scene like the one in the photo above, and been thankful beyond words that I don’t have to be a participant in them—at least not yet. Thanks to my bicycle, commuting can be one of the more enjoyable parts of my day, tempered by the sobering excitement of things like getting wheels caught in street car tracks, having breaks fail because of wet roads, or getting cut off by cars!

From the corps of the city to its periphery a lot of people are making the same choice. During the rush hours, bike lanes are busy with all manner of bikers and their bikes. Some people are the types who like to boot it; decked out in all their fancy bike gear they look to make it to work in the best time possible. Others, simply tuck their pant leg into their socks, strap a helmet on, and take their time to negotiate the city streets and side paths that bring them to their destination.

It’s strange to think that more people in the city are just recently coming around to what modern bike couriers have known for more than15 years: if traffic is busy, you will get to wherever you need to go in the city much faster by bike then you will by car. No need to bother with finding and then paying for parking! No need to worry about one way streets or gridlock! Narrow alleys and parks are your friends, not hindrances!

Theft is another issue. I mentioned previously that Toronto has some of the highest rates (if not THE highest) of bike theft in Canada. However, the council of Chris (the guy who built and sold me my bike) was that all you need is a good lock. Realistically, he told me, there isn’t a lock you can buy that can’t be broken or compromised. However, all you need is a lock that will take a few extra seconds to break in order to deter a thief sufficiently to keep your ride safe. I mean crackheads are desperate, but they’re not stupid! (Um…I suppose that statement is up for debate.)

Of course warm weather and bicycles go together like foot and pedal. Biking to work in the glorious warm gleam of a new morning is much different than gritting your teeth and squinting your eyes into the frosty ire of winter, which is now closing in upon the city. What will be interesting to see is how winter (if you can call Toronto’s weather during the months between November and February winter!) will affect people’s ability to and interest in biking.