The first section of the Railpath is finally open... Vic Gedris has a few cool photos of it:
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Posted 1 year ago #
I rode the West Toronto Railpath on Friday after work. I'll post some photos of a former railpath turned into awesome cycling infrastructure as soon as I upload the photos.
It's a pretty long thing... I tried to get photos that would capture the size. The photos in the above post show a very small part.
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Posted 1 year ago #
Looks awesome. How do you get on to it?
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Posted 1 year ago #
It goes from Caribou (off Osler, north of Dupont) in the north to Dundas in the south. I entered at the south end and rode north. There are entry points under construction (it's not *officially* open yet) at Bloor and Dupont via bridges, but there are also a bunch of at-grade entry points between Dupont and Bloor - namely Ruskin, Wallace and Randolph avenues.
There's a map on the Railpath site, but I don't think it actually has all the entry points on there.
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Posted 1 year ago #
The South Junction Triangle website has some new photos of the Railpath bridges being painted:
Dupont Bridge gets painted with Railpath lettering
Railpath, northbound crossing at Dupont St.
Railpath, southbound crossing at Dupont St.
Dupont Bridge gets painted with Railpath letteringAll photos by Kevin Putnam
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Posted 1 year ago #
A few weeks ago I biked out west to have a look at the nearly complete Railpath (map)... and decided to take photos that tried to capture the coolness of this new pedestrian and bicycle project, as well as how long it really is:
Looking north from the south end of the railpath.. from the Dundas Bridge.
Still looking from the Dundas Bridge, I zoomed as much as I could to see how far the camera would see. :)
On the railpath, looking up at the Dundas Bridge... you can see that there are plans to extend the path further south... hopefully all the way to the Liberty Village area.
There are rather mysterious metal towers dotted along the path.
More metal tower. You can barely see the Dundas Bridge in the background.
A little turny-ring thing. Yes, that is the technical term for it.
There are very cool road marker signs at the entrances/exits to the path. This one is for Bloor.
The stairs down to Bloor. You can see there are spaces on the sides for bike rails... so it's easy to roll bikes up. :)
My bike on the Bloor bridge.
Another look at the Bloor Bridge.
There are lots of bikeposts and new trees all along the Railpath
Closer to the northern end of the Railpath... it stretches for a long way. :)
Some areas weren't *quite* done yet.
The north end (at Caribou Ave, just north of Dupont) is pretty with lots of trees, but the sidewalks and curbs on Caribou don't drop to meet the street... which will make it hard to actually ride onto the north end of the path. -
Posted 8 months ago #
I had been meaning to take some video footage of the new Railpath, and I finally got around to doing it this weekend. Here is my post/video:
Toronto Yearns for Bicycle Superhighway
On October 30 2009, the first section of the West Toronto Rail Path officially opened. A 2.1KM stretch from Cariboo Ave. in the north to Dundas St. West in the south, the rail path provides cyclists an automobile and traffic light-free route.
Although a positive step in the right direction, this $4 million path will be of little use for prospective cycling commuters until the full length of the proposed path is completed - or until it connects cyclists with a better network of cycling routes (Check out how they do it in the Netherlands).
The rail path was originally hailed as a possible future bicycle superhighway, but cyclists have criticized the trail for its lack of separation between pedestrians and cyclists.
When I first learned about this path a couple years back, I was excited about its potential. If implemented properly, cycling commuters could ride to work from the northwest side of the city without having to deal with traffic lights or automobiles. It’s a cycling commuter’s dream.
Unfortunately it will be several more years before the remaining portion of the path is completed – if it ever gets completed. The plan is to extend the trail further east to Strachan Ave., but the ideal state would see the trail extended all the way to Union Station.
The following video is a tour of the path based on footage I took this morning featuring Metric’s “Gold Guns Girls” (acoustic version).
James / theurbancountry.com
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Posted 8 months ago #
Great video James.
Duncan's City Ride - That's my blog about cycling in the city of Toronto, natch! -
Posted 8 months ago #
It's funny reading all the griping from cycling leaders in our community when the Toronto West Railpath was brought forward. http://spacing.ca/wire/2007/03/22/this-is-not-a-bike-path/
I think it's a fantastic route, we need to build more of them all across Toronto. I imagine those same people will be bitching about a path along the Finch Hydro Corridor as well for any little reason. lol -
Posted 8 months ago #
I agree Angus. I don't really think and true "leader" would gripe about something like this... it's a fantastic piece of infrastructure and any argument that it should "only be for bikes" is akin to drivers saying that roads should "only be for cars"... the fact that the railpath is for cyclists, walkers, dogs, rollerbladers ensures that it is used by a wide segment of the community.
Besides, anyone who complained about it a few years ago is riding on it now that it's done, anyways. :)
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Posted 8 months ago #
Great video, James.
I hadn't heard that version of “Gold Guns Girls” before... I like the multiple camera angles too.
You looked cold... I wanted to give you a toque while watching that. :)
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Posted 8 months ago #
Thanks Joe! It was pretty chilly out there.. almost time to pull out the toque indeed - but I plan to keep the bike out until the army gets called in to clear our snow ;)
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Posted 2 months ago #
Beautiful Picture also provided guideline
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