Bike Week 2007, Toronto's annual celebration of all things cycling, officially kicks off on May 28th, 2007 with the 18th Annual Group Commute and Pancake Breakfast. There are however many events before that, some going on this weekend and the events continue well into June. You can see the entire schedule at the City of Toronto's online Bike Week calendar for May and June.

There are supposed to be over 140 events hosted by the city, community organizations and businesses. There are many group rides, breakfasts, films, breakfasts, bike repair workshops, lunches, photo exhibits, and did I mention breakfasts. There are lots of ways to celebrate cycling in Toronto so get out there and ride, and burn off those breakfasts!

On a morning when TTC workers staged a wild cat transit strike, which stranded commuters and tied up cars in the resulting traffic, over 1000 cyclists arrived at work on time. (preliminary counts I got said 500 cyclists. The official numbers are in and it was over 1000 involved.) They were the participants of the Bike Week 17th annual Group Commute. Starting at 7:30 am at 5 points across Toronto they converged on Yonge street and converged on City Hall in time for the 8:30 am breakfast. I think that says something about the importance of enhancing the role of cycling in the city's transportation system. The cyclists were lead by the Mayor David Miller and several City councillors including Adam Giambrone, co-chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee, Sylvia Watson, Paula Fletcher, Janet Davis, and Jane Pitfield. Former chairs of the Toronto Cycling Committee, now members of Parliament, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow were there as well to join in kicking off Bike Week 2006.

Mayor David Miller (centre) leads 500 cyclists down Yonge Street in the 2006 edition of the Group Commute. He is joined by City Councillors (left to right) Janet Davis, Paula Fletcher and Jane Pitfield as well as Member of Parliament Oliva Chow and Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton. Adam Giambrone and Sylvia Watson were back in the pack.

Mayor David Miller presented Councillor Adam Giambrone with the proclamation declaring May 29th to June 11th Bike Week: Bike Week 2006 Proclamation. The theme of Bike Week 2006 is "Bike to Work" and the Mayor noted that that was appropriate given the events of the day.

Mayor Miller presents the Bike Week 2006 Proclamation to Toronto Cycling Committee Co-Chair Adam Giambrone.

There are lots of Bike Week events left to take part in, especially since Bike Week is really 2 weeks. You can see the listing of events at the Bike Week 2006 web page or on the Bike Week 2006 Online Calendar. Get out and celebrate Bike Week, the week with 14 days!

Bike Week 2006 gets started this coming Monday with the 17th Annual Group Commute and Pancake Breakfast. The theme of this year's Bike Week is 'Bike To Work' and the first event gives you a chance to do just that and get a free breakfast to boot. This is a mass ride where cyclists start at one of 5 starting points around the City and converge on City Hall's Nathan Phillips Square for an 8:30 am breakfast. The following map, from the City of Toronto's website, has the starting points and the start times

The festivities continue at Nathan Phillips Square that day with the Breakfast & Lunchtime Cycling Festival. This will feature booths and information about cycling in Toronto.

During the week the City of Toronto will be hosting other Bike to Work Breakfasts at the civic centres across the city: Tuesday, May 30th-Etobicoke Civic Centre, Wednesday, May 31st - North York Civic Centre, Thursday, June 1st - Scarborough Civic Centre, Friday, June 2nd - East York Civic Centre. You can see details of these events on the Bike Week 2006 Web page: www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeweek/bikeweek_2006.htm

In addition to the City of Toronto Events there are many more events hosted by community groups, organizations and businesses. These events will continue all next week and on to June 11th. You can see a complete list of events with the necessary details on the City's Bike Week Online Calendar. You can also download a PDF version of the printed schedule at the following link. Bike Week 2006 Calendar

Bike Week 2006, Toronto's celebration of all things cycling, will run between Monday May 29th to June 11, 2006. It is filled with events some of which are run by the City and many of which are hosted by community organizations, individuals and businesses. The City of Toronto Staff have started planning their events and are looking to help members of the cycling community with planning theirs. To that end they will be hosting two Bike Week Public meetings on January 24th and March 14th. The details of the meeting are below.

Bike Week Public Meeting
January 24th, 2006
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Committee Room #3
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen St West.

Bike Week Public Meeting
March 14th, 2006
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Committee Room #3
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen St West.

The purpose of the meetings are to network and brainstorm ideas for coming up with you bike week event. You can also find out how to register your event so it will be included in the Bike Week Calendar. The dead line for registering a Bike Week event is March 17th, 2006. You can find more information on Bike Week at the Bike Week web page.. There you can also download the Bike Week Event Registration Forms and a Bike Week event Planning Guide.

The 2005 edition of Bike Week Kicks off this Monday, May 30th with the 16th Annual Group Commute & Free Pancake Breakfast. Cyclists will meet up at start points across the city and converge at Yonge and Bloor at 8:00 pm and then head down Yonge Street to Nathan Phillips Square for a free pancake Breakfast. For details about the starting points and times go to the City's Bike Week online schedule Bike Week May 30th. The City of Toronto also has an online Map of the starting points. Group Commute Map(PDF).

Later that day at Nathan Philips Square is the Lunch Time Cycling Festival and Fair from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. You can find more information about these and other Bike Week Events at the following web page Bike Week Events - week of May 29

Bike Week gives us a chance to celebrate cycling. It is also an opportunity to show the Mayor, Councillors and City officials, who will attend these events, the degree of support for improving the cycling programs and infrastructure included in the Bike Plan that will make Toronto a better place to bike.

The City of Toronto has posted the schedule for Bike Week 2005. You can see that and other information at the City of Toronto's Bike Week 2005 web page: www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeweek/. The official dates of bike week are from Monday May 30th to Sunday June 12th, 2005.

This year, as in past years, Bike Week features hundreds of events, large and small, across Toronto. Some are hosted by the City of Toronto while many are hosted by cycling community groups. Toronto Bicycling Network(www.tbn.ca), which offers this BikeToronto.ca web site as a news and information service to cyclists in the city, will be hosting several rides at various locations in the city. The Community Bicycle Network www.communitybicyclenetwork.org will have several events to celebrate bike week including the kick off of their speaker series. You can see details of their events here. CBN Bikeweek schedule. Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists (ARC) www.respect.to is another community group hosting events. On Friday, June 3 they will be handing out fortune cookies to cyclists at downtown Toronto Intersections between 7:30 and 9:30 am as part of an event they are calling Fortune Cookie Friday. There are many other events hosted by cycling businesses, councillors, community groups and more. You can see the full schedule at this City of Toronto's web page, www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeweek/bwschedule2005.htm

Bike week will kick off with Bike Week's signature event, the 16th Annual Group Commute & Free Pancake which is hosted by the Toronto Cycling Committee, the advisory to the City of Toronto on cycling issues. Cyclists will meet on Monday morning at various start points around the city and converge on City Hall for a pancake breakfast. You can see more details here. 16th Annual Group Commute

For more information on Bike Week you can contact the City of Toronto Staff at bikeweek@toronto.ca or call, 416-392-7592..

Look forward to seeing you at Bike Week.

Bike Week 2005, Toronto's 16th annual celebration of cycling will take place this year between Monday, May 30th to Sunday, June 12th, 2005. Bike Week features many events, rides and activities, some of which are hosted by the City of Toronto and many of which are hosted by community groups, organizations, businesses and individuals. Planning for this year's bike week is underway and the calendar of events is starting to take shape.

If you or your organization wants to host a Bike Week event you have until Noon on Friday March 25th to register the event for inclusion in the City of Toronto's Bike Week calendar. You can download the event registration form from the City's Bike Week web page Bike Week Registration Forms

Bike Week will kick off on the morning of Monday May 30th, with the 2005 Bike Week Group Commute, where cyclists from across the city converge on City Hall from 3 starting points and various feeder routes.

Another opportunity to get involved is the Lunch Time Cycling Festival and Fair at Nathan Phillips Square. It is also on May 30th. It feature booths and entertainment. If you want to have a booth on this day fill in the registration form and submit it by April 22, 2005. Again the form can be downloaded from the City's web site. Bike Week Registration Forms

Once the calendar is finalized you should be able to see it on the City of Toronto's Bike Week web page

On June 6th, 2004 will be the first of four Community Bicycle Festivals that will happen over the next month in various areas of the City of Toronto. The goal of these events are to bring information about the Toronto Bike Plan 'Shifting Gears' and the Bikeway Network into the communities of Toronto. Staff from the City of Toronto's cycling programs will be there to answer questions and gather feedback from the residents of the community. Also Councillors Adam Giambrone and Sylvia Watson will be there. People can learn about the bike lanes or paths that are being planned in their communities and see how they fit in to the overall plan as laid out in the Bike Plan. They can also learn about the various cycling safety, education and promotion programs that the city offers. The details of the event are at the following web page: Bike Week Schedule June 6th,

The festival will be at Dufferin Grove Park which is just south of Bloor street and runs from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. This event falls on the same day as the Becel Ride for Heart on the DVP. If you are going to the Ride for Heart you can take a side trip to the Community Bicycle Festival. If you pick up the 2004 cycling map you can find a route that connects from Coronation Park to Dufferin Grove Park, Look for the signed route on Strachan (a solid blue line on the map). Follow it up through Trinity Bellwoods park, up Crawford to Harbord St. Turn left and follow the dotted blue line that traces a route along Harbord, Ossington, Dewson and Sylvan which will take you to the south end of the park.

If you miss out on this event there will be three more. The tentative times and locations are June 17th at Colonel Sam Smith Park at Kipling Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd. West; June 19th ath the East York Civic Centre at 850 Coxwell Ave.; and July 1, 2004 at Thompson Memorial Road at Brimley Road and Lawrence Ave. East. I will post more details or changes to the times and dates when they become available.

The S.M.A.R.T. (Saving Money and Air by Reducing Trips) Movement Program is an program of Pollution Probe. Their goal is to encourage more trips by alternative means of transportation, including on bicycle, there by reducing the number of drive alone automobile trips. The ultimate goal is to improve air quality. One activity they are undertaking to further this goal is hosting a Bike Week 2004 event "Let Bike to the Ex!". The details are quoted below from their announcement.

Let's Bike to the Ex!
Bandshell Park, Exhibition Place,
Thursday, June 3, 2004, 6:30 p.m.  
Bike Week celebration with the music of Maybrick, Adam Cooke Band, and DJ Sweeney. BBQ, drinks, prizes. Come join in the fun, celebrate our vibrant cycling community, and check out the WindShare Turbine.
All welcome.
Free Admission.
Call 416-263-3300 for more info.

To find out more about S.M.A.R.T. check out their page on the Pollution Probe web site S.M.A.R.T. Movement Program

Pollution Probe is also hosting the Clean Air Commute from June 21st - 25th. You can find more details at the Clean Air Commute web page.

The grey drizzly spring day was made brighter by the hundreds of cyclists who participated in the kick off event for Bike Week 2004, the 15th Annual Group Commute and Pancake Breakfast. The Mayor was joined by City Councillors and other local polititcians.

Toronto Mayor David Miller(centre) is joined by (left to right) Peggy Nash, Olivia Chow, Joe Mihevc and hundreds of other Toronto cyclists on the 15th Annual Group Commute.

One staff person remarked that this was the largest number of councillors to participate in Bike Week's signature ride. On hand were Councillor Adam Giambrone, (Ward 18 Davenport) who is the recently appointed co-chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee, Olivia Chow, (Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina), who is the past co-chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee, Joe Mihevc (Ward 21 St. Paul's West), Jane Pitfield (Ward 26 Don Valley West), Paula Fletcher (Ward 30 Toronto-Danforth), Janet Davis (Ward 31 Beaches-East York), and Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38 Scarborough Centre).

Leading the ride down Yonge St. to City Hall are Mayor Miller, and Councillors Joe Mihevc, Adam Giambrone, and Jane Pitfield.

Municipal politicians were not the only ones in attendance. Candidates in the federal election also joined in. The NDP's Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park) and Michael Shapcott (Toronto-Centre). Olivia Chow is also running for a federal seat in Trinity-Spadina. The Liberal's Bill Graham (Toronto-Centre) was also said to be in attendance.

Hundreds of cyclists descended down Yonge Street to City Hall for the Pancake Breakfast and the official proceedings. There the Mayor presented the Official Proclamation of Bike Week to Nina Koskenoja, a citizen co-chair of the Toronto Cycling Committee.

The Mayor is joined on stage with Nina Koskenoja, co-chair of the TCC and Aron Dunn, Bike Week organizer.

This is just the first event in the two weeks that are known as Bike Week. If you want to take in some of the activites check the Bike Week Schedule.

I have written a lot in the Toronto Bicycling Network(TBN) newsletter and on the BikeToronto.ca web site about the Bikeway Network projects that have been completed in the City of Toronto in the first two years of the Toronto Bike Plan. Sometimes I have included some pictures or maps to give readers a better understanding of what the new projects look like or how they can find them and ride them themselves. This I feel still doesn't give a true feel of how the new projects tie in to the greater network and how cyclists can connect from one to the other. That is the purpose of the BikeToronto.ca Network Connections Ride.

This ride is one of the Bike Week rides that Toronto Bicycling Network is hosting. It will be on Sunday May 30th at 10:00 am. ...(more)

The 15th edition of Toronto's Bike Week gets in gear tomorrow as the 15th Annual Group Commute & Free Pancake Breakfast starts from various locations around the city on Tuesday morning. The official 7:30 am start points are Bloor & High Park, Yonge & Lawrence and Danforth & Woodbine. There is an earlier 7:00 am start point for Scarborough cyclists. This is at the south east corner of Danforth Road and St. Clair Ave. E. This ride is being led by Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker Ward 38 Scarborough Centre. From these start points riders will converge at Bloor and Yonge to meet cyclists who are starting their ride from there at 8:00 am. Then they will proceed down to City Hall for the Pancake breakfast at 8:30 am and the festivities happening there.

There is also an unofficial start point. The Dundas E.A.S.T. group who championed the building of the Dundas East Bike Lanes will be having their 'Pedal for Pancakes' Ride. It will start at 7:45 am at Dundas Street East and Kingston Road and follow the bike lanes on Dundas East and Shuter Street and arrive at City Hall at 8:30 am for the pancake breakfast.

You can see more information on this and other Bike Week events at the City of Toronto's Bike Week page Bike week events- week of May 23rd . Also to help plan your Bike Week activities the City of Toronto has an online calendar of cycling events that lists the Bike Week events Cycling Calendar