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PICTURE
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DESCRIPTION
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I covered quite a long distance on my bike today, especially for a regular
weekday. Almost 70km. My usual commute to work was followed by a ride
out to the depths of North York for a memorial for a 16 year-old cyclist
named Bianca Gogel who was killed by a truck last week. Although the main
destination for all this riding was to attend a sad memorial, I wanted
to make the best of this nice riding weather and enjoy myself. Here is a
map of today's route
(may be slow to load...).
This first picture was taken at Robert Speck and Hurontario in Mississauga
infront of work as I was leaving.
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Riding down Burnhamthorpe Rd. at Tomken.
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Tomken again. I don't usually like riding down Burnhamthorpe. Very busy,
and too many people are in such a rush.
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Waiting in line to turn off of Burnhamthorpe onto Mill Rd.
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Mill Rd. is more pleasant for cycling.
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After Mill Rd. I turned onto Rathburn to continue riding east.
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Crossing Highway 427 on Rathburn, taking the middle lane. :)
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Bike lane on Rathburn. I actually like this lane. It looks like they
took away a regular traffic lane on each side, created a turning lane in
the middle of the road, and put decent bike lanes on each side.
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Still riding down Rathburn.
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Rathburn...
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Another cyclist pulled over infront of me on Rathburn.
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Still on Rathburn...
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I meant to turn up Martin Grove, but instead I ended up going all the
way to Islington. I stopped here to just check my map and then started to
ride north on Islington.
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A long stretch of Eglinton Ave. has a multi-use recreational trail along
the south side. It needs a bit of repair, but it's a nice break from the
heavy traffic on Eglinton. Faster in some places too, as I zipped past
the gridlock. The only thing I don't like are the intersections.
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"The car experience". Waiting in line forever to turn left onto Jane St.
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Climbing up Jane St.
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Climbing another bridge on Jane St.
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Salvation Army Thrift Store on Jane.
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The traffic sucked around the section where all the highways cross.
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I turned left on Wilson to ride a bit further east.
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North on Keele, I missed my intended turn, so I ended up going all the way
to Sheppard.
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I wanted to cut through Downsview Park. That was a bit of a mistake....
although I enjoyed riding through there.
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Self-portrait.
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Looking north on the tracks that go through Downsview Park.
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Another picture of the tracks.
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Once more, in case you missed the first two pictures.
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I thought I should have been able to cut right through the park, but I
guess I was wrong (Google Maps deceived me!). I ended up riding along this
stretch of gravel towards the fence next to Sheppard Ave., but I couldn't
get through there either.
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I ended up finding a place where the fence was low enough (maybe 5 or 6
feet high?) so that I could throw my bike over and climb to the other side.
I was mostly successful with this idea, except that I snagged my leg on
the top of the fence. Nice puncture wound that put a hole in my pants
and got my leg all bloody. Fortunately it mostly stopped bleeding
pretty quickly. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to stop it and that
by cycling I would cause it to bleed more. I cleaned it up really well
when I got home, so I hope this doesn't cause me any trouble.
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I met up with other cyclists (members of ARC and others) at Downsview
Station. I think there were about 12 of us in total. From here, we rode
on to the memorial site at Keele and Finch.
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Riding along Sheppard Ave. around Downsview Park.
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Carrying some flowers for the memorial.
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We arrived at the memorial site a few minutes before 8:00pm. We spent
time looking at the many notes and flowers stuck to the post, and some
people added the flowers they had brought along.
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The memorial site.
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Earlier in the day, someone had chained up a "Ghost Bike".
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This is a very ugly intersection. There is a constant stream of trucks
travelling in every direction, and turning every which way.
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Trucks like this, without sideguards, are not very friendly to pedestrians,
cyclists, and smaller motor vehicles.
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Another tanker truck turns from Keele onto Finch.
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There were some other cyclists in this area. Not surprisingly, they were
all riding on the sidewalk. Illegal, but I can see why people would be
afraid to ride on the roads here.
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This ghost bike has probably seen hundreds or thousands of trucks today.
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Ghost Bike.....
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...dedicated to Bianca....
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RIP, July 20th.
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One of the notes left on the pole.
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She is missed by many people.
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For a little over 10 minutes, cyclists took one lane of the road to let
people know what happened here last week.
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The huge trucks continued to roll by.
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Trucks, cars, vans....
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Another truck.
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...and another.
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After about 10 minutes, some police showed up and asked us to move off of
the road.
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They were concerned for our safety....
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Winding down...everyone is off the road now.
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Ghost bike and a bus.
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Watch out for the trucks here.
Some of us warmed up at Tim Hortons after the memorial. Then I rode home
basically down Finch to Jane to Bloor. Jane is a great road to ride
south on at night. Fast enough that I am often keeping up with traffic,
and there isn't too much traffic at night anyway, so it's blast bombing
down the hills. I just take the right lane and let 'er rip.
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| All photographs ©2006 Victor Gedris |