Cycling Gotham - Cycling in Toronto

So, I've been shooting tons of GoPro footage, whenever I get the chance, and I had the opportunity to use the camera at night recently. It just so happened to be windy as a storm was coming in, so I cycled into the wind on my way out and out of it on the way back.

The only way to fly.

I'm often asked how safe I feel riding at night. This footage should give you an idea of visibility and traffic volume; I feel very safe at night. The "dark" portion of my trip through High Park looks scary, but it was better for me than the camera shows. The vast majority of the trip was lit.

I used cycling infrastructure for about 3/4 of the trip, Dupont and then Annette have bike lanes, the park has a bike trail, the waterfront has a cycling trail, Strachan has a bike lane, Trinity Bellwoods has a trail, and I use Harbord and Shaw to finish up. I think night riding is a great way to ride, the lighter traffic and cooler temperatures make it much more pleasant than daytime riding exposed on the road to the full blaze of sunlight. It's a 16km ride, nothing too crazy, and clocks in around an hour or less. Ideal for a night ride to finish off your day. Everyone complains about finding the time to ride, well, I shot this video from 10:30-11:30pm on a Wed night. I'm sure you can find time for that.

The video is in 5 parts, and the first 6 min of part 2 (when I enter High Park) is like one of those "Toronto at Night" postcards, very dark. Other than that visibility is pretty good.

The map is here:

High Park to Waterfront

MapMyRide used to make it easy to export maps, no longer, I think I have to upgrade to premium...

The videos are here:

Part 1