Spring 2026 Newsletter

Highlights

Spring arrived slowly this year, but cycling advocacy has already hit top speed. Here’s what you will find in our Spring Newsletter:

Closing the Loop: our spring ride and advocacy campaign

We Belong on Bloor campaign

Tacos and Tune Ups

Road Safety Champion Awards 2025-26

CRASH – reducing fatality risks from pickups and large SUVs

E-bikes and law reform

Velo Odds and Ends

• Snow Clearing on Bloor

• Faculty of Law Externship students: Muskan Fatima and Rachel How

• New Board Members

Closing the Loop: our spring ride and advocacy campaign

In our last newsletter we introduced our Closing the Loop campaign. Our aim is to push for the connection of a number of trails --- some of which date from the 1970s --- into a complete loop. The gaps (listed here) measure a mere 5,500 metres, but convincing City Hall to act with a bit more urgency is central to our advocacy. After our initial inquiries, we discovered that since Mayor John Tory first announced The Loop Trail in 2020, the project was essentially forgotten. After our November 2025 ride, we brought together various City Hall divisions and Evergreen (responsible for a related fundraising initiative) to push forward. Please let your city councillor know that you want The Loop to be closed. We are also collaborating with the West Scarborough Rail Path (WSRP) group to advocate for a Scarborough arm of The Loop that would connect Biidaasige Park on the waterfront to the Rouge National Park. The total of The Loop and the Scarborough arm would amount to 100km, with obvious dividends for affordable and enjoyable cycling to everyday destinations, recreation, and tourism.

We Belong on Bloor campaign

A key focus of our We Belong on Bloor campaign is the call for proper connections and linkages from the local neighbourhood on and around Mabelle Avenue to surrounding destinations, including schools, the Bloor bike lane, the new Islington Subway station, Tom Riley Park, and the local community centre. The theme of our Jane’s Walk on May 2, co-hosted with Walk Toronto, was “Reducing travel times for people who walk, cycle, use mobility devices, and take transit.” We followed up by writing to the city’s Cycling & Pedestrian Projects and the local councillor. We are confident that local MPs, James Maloney and Yvan Baker, who were passionate about reducing motorist travel delays when the Bloor bike lane was installed, will be equally passionate about reducing travel delays for residents who rely on other modes to get around the city. Among other We Belong on Bloor initiatives, we organized the Great Bloor-Danforth Bike Lane Clean Up on April 25. We continue our regular Koffee on the Kingsway gatherings every two weeks. (Please email us to be added to the list.) Planning is also in full swing for our third annual Islington Bike Day on Saturday, June 20 at Mabelle Park.

E-bikes and law reform

We are big fans of e-bikes, but to ensure continued expansion of the use of e-bikes for all ages and abilities we believe that regulatory reforms are required. Our first step was a deep dive into the laws that govern e-bikes at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. We benefitted greatly from the work of law student Muskan Fatima who completed a comprehensive memo on the issue. (Please see more about Muskan in Velo Odds and Ends, below.) The next step was to conduct education seminars for the public. Soon thereafter, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation introduced thoughtful modernization proposals that are open for public input until June 7. Please email us if you have any questions or comments.

Tacos and Tune Ups in Etobicoke

With the generous help of bike mechanics David Keogh and Geoff Bercarich, we stationed ourselves along one of the gaps in The Loop Trail on Stephen Drive in Etobicoke. Geoff and David tuned up a few dozen bikes. Engineers (and board members) Lance LeRoux and Bilal Khan provided triage with the assistance of a 3D printer-created ticket dispenser to keep the queue moving. Etobicoke-Lakeshore Councillor Amber Morley dropped by -- and even picked up litter in the local neighbourhood. MP James Maloney also stopped by. At 1pm we took a 10km ride along the Humber Trail, Bloor Street, and Royal York to get to We the Tacos on Lakeshore Blvd. The appreciative business owners, Annie and Kemish Martinez, provided free churros after we enjoyed their tasty Mexican tacos. Janet Joy Wilson and Bromptoning documented the event.

Road Safety Champion Awards 2025-26

Toutoune Gallery and Ginette Lapalme – Business Road Safety Champion

Ginette Lapalme, owner of Toutoune Gallery on Bathurst Street, was recognized for her valiant defence of the proposed Bloor busway, despite a vocal (and, sadly typical) business pushback —- led by an AI-generated “concerned resident” —- that put parking over people. Ginette stood out among local merchants for her courageous championing of the RapidTO busway, which the city’s survey showed as having strong community support, albeit not from the local councillor Dianne Saxe. Busways are an inexpensive, quickly-implemented, and efficient way to improve transit service.

Peter Low – Mary Ann Neary Advocate of the Year Award

For almost two decades, Peter Low has been a dedicated road safety advocate in Toronto. His approach is grounded in courtesy, good humour, and persistence -- qualities that also made the late Mary Ann Neary (a founder of our group) such an effective advocate. While Peter is today a leader in North York cycling advocacy, his work dates back to the early days of Bells on Bloor and the push for bike lanes on Bloor.

North York Cycles – Suburban Road Safety Champion

North York Cycles has been leading the charge on cycling and road safety advocacy in North York, organizing group rides, bike repair events and educational initiatives, while advocating for safe roads. The group has made North York a safer place to ride, and a better place to live. 

The Wayne Scott Community Service Award will be presented in June.

CRASH – reducing fatality risks to pedestrians and cyclists

We continue to call on all levels of government to address the higher fatality risks to pedestrians and cyclists from pickups and large SUVs. At the local level, the Coalition to Reduce Auto Size Hazards (CRASH), which we help to lead, has been calling for curbside parking fees that are consistent with the greater amount of space that these vehicles occupy. See “More should cost more, even for parking.” At the federal and provincial levels, we continue to engage decision-makers about this growing danger that undermines municipal investments in road safety. On April 26, we took our life-sized Ford F150 pickup (cardboard cut-out) to the annual EcoFair to demonstrate visually the greater fatality risk entailed by the high vehicle front-end of pickups and large SUVs to pedestrians, especially children.

Velo Odds and Ends

Snow Clearing on Bloor

After an unusually heavy snowfall at the end of January, city crews and contractors seemed to forget about many of the busiest bike lanes. Over the next several weeks, we organized snow-clearing parties along Bloor Street, including two occasions when we teamed up with Curbside Cycle. It was tough work, but the appreciative smiles of cyclists were more than adequate compensation for our efforts.

Faculty of Law Externship students: Muskan Fatima and Rachel How

During their last semester at the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law, Muskan Fatima (left) and Rachel How completed Externship programs with Community Bikeways, under the supervision of lawyer Albert Koehl. Muskan and Rachel provided invaluable help on two of our law reform files, namely a new e-bike regulatory framework and addressing the greater fatality risk to pedestrians and cyclists from pickups and large SUVs. We are grateful to Muskan and Rachel --- and to the University of Windsor --- for their important contributions to our advocacy work. We are confident that both students will become excellent lawyers, while continuing to support road safety initiatives that improve public health and neighbourhood quality of life. 

New Board Members

Over the last two months, Community Bikeways had the pleasure of welcoming five new board members. These individuals bring a wealth of road safety, cycling, and community experience as well as a tremendous amount of new energy to the group. Please check our website for the bios of Kelly Crosthwaite, David Keogh, Mark Fernandez, Matti Cowan, and Mariyan Boychev.

Support Community Bikeways

We are a fiercely independent group that shuns government and corporate donations. This approach allows us to carry out, without restraint, our mission of holding City Hall and other levels of government to account for their road safety, climate, and cycling plans. 

We nonetheless gratefully accept individual donations that help us achieve our objectives and to hold fun events that lift spirits. Since we are not a registered charity, we cannot provide income tax receipts. If you are in a position to donate you can do so by making a direct deposit (via electronic transfer) to Community.Bikeways.Toronto@gmail.com.

We wish you safe riding!

Jessie, David, Bilal, Kelly, Matti, Mariyan, Ersan, Michael B, Michael H, Bob, Jennifer, Roger, Lance, Janet Joy, Mark F (x 2), and Albert.

Webmaster: Ian Mills