Cycling Good Cheer has become a tradition in Toronto, with a group riding from North York to downtown along Yonge St with Santa. Today was the fourth such ride. The meeting point was Mel Lastman Square. Here is Santa arriving at the start point, having ridden from points further north.
We were joined by Councillor Lily Cheng, who rode with us with some friends all the way downtown. She said that she was looking forward to spreading some good cheer.
Here is everyone at the start.
Rudolph getting us lined up to go.
Off we go.
Hopefully we will see some bike lanes along this stretch north of Sheppard.
Crossing under the 401 is always the most dangerous part of this ride.
A regroup just south of the crossing to make sure we have everyone. We still have to go past the offramp that will merge from our right.
Rudolph with the lead group going up the hill from Hogg’s Hollow.
Keenan is rocking a sloth ugly sweater.
Here is Santa, not too far behind.
Councillor Cheng is still smiling.
Pulling into Yonge Blvd parkette for a bit of a break at the top of the hill.
Starting up again.
Working up the hill from Lawrence Ave.
Waiting to cross Eglinton.
Yes, this intersection is still a mess. It is down to one lane for both directions, with flaggers.
Quite a large group waiting for us at Chaplin Cres, so we didn’t stop.
This part of the ride was also a kidical mass event.
Just a brief shot of the Kartik Saini ghost bike. It needs a new rear wheel, but the sign looks OK.
Santa signalling a left turn into Scrivener Square.
Huge turnout this year.
Lanrick and Lily.
Things were a bit chaotic. I hope someone got a better group picture than this.
I remarked on the warm weather and Councillor Saxe replied that we all know why this is.
Cruising south of Bloor.
Approaching our final left turn into the TMU campus. The ride was slightly truncated since there was a huge demonstration going on at Yonge Dundas Square.
Santa thanks everyone for showing up, and also thanks all of the volunteers.
Councillor Saxe reminds us that there is still opposition to bike lanes on city council, and that it is important to build bridges to those opposed. She also said that all residents of TCHC and ODSP recepients now have discounted access to bikeshare (the non electric bikes only).
Councillor Cheng said that events like this remind everyone that cycling is fun.
Santa calls for a group picture.
An alternate wide angle shot.
One more shot of Santa with some of the organizers and friends, along with our youngest rider (only 3!) who was by no means our slowest rider.
Thanks to Santa Koehl, TCBC, the rest of our volunteers and marshalls. Thanks to everyone who rode with us. I hope you had a good time.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Here are some photos and video in this thread by Rob Z.
Thanks for posting this! I didn’t take any pictures during the ride so had to find people on Strava to show some pictures to my wife when I got home. It was a fun ride and I was pretty impressed with the turnout and all the positive feedback from drivers. Not the honks I’m used to.
My kid (9) enjoyed it too – he was definitely the youngest rider to ride from Mel Lastman Square all the way down. We’ll see if we can convince some of his friends to come next year.
send me a note at junnogami@gmail.com and I can look through my photos to see if I have some of your son. I assume he is the one with the blue jacket and the black helmet.
Great turnout for your ride!!
It was such a great event with a bunch of festive and creative people! Thank you! I’m so glad it wasn’t raining as promised by the weather people and we are sure to join in the next year as well.
Would anyone have extra photos of my kid on the green bike, with orange helmet and three pinwheels (he is actually three, not five)?
We had a bit of a crash when leaving Davisville and only caught up with the main group when everyone was snacking on croissants.
send me a note at junnogami@gmail.com, and I will send you a few pictures. Maybe you could also put a call out on the original event FB page.