Yesterday, someone asked me how I was finding cycling in Toronto.

"Oh, it's great!" I gushed. "I love it. Toronto is so great on a bike."

But how are you finding the awful Toronto drivers? they wanted to know. And I was actually taken aback.

"I haven't really found them bad at all," I said. I didn't really know what he was referring to.

Well naturally I jinxed myself, and today I am enraged at Toronto drivers. Without going into ranting details that will bore anyone but me, I will say that I *screamed* at a driver for the first time in my 8-year cycling career today, and also had a terrible experience while trying to make a legal left-hand turn at a busy street. Apparently the only thing more enraging (far more, it would seem) than a car holding up traffic to turn left... is a cyclist. 

Which leads me to my next point. A reader a while back commented on my "Google Bikemaps Please" post (via email) and said:

As a long time bike commuter, the safest thing you can
do on a bike is act like a car. If the map gives you
car directions, you should follow them for the most
part.

Right now, in this moment, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say... fuck that. You know why? Because I realized tonight that I exist with a constant state of low-level fear in me, every time I ride on a busy road. Every time I hear a car coming up behind me, my nervous system reacts. It's often subtle, but it's pervasive, and it sucks. It sucks to fear for your life while you're trying to do the right thing. 

I am totally besotted with cycling around Toronto in the springtime.

Anyone who doubts the wonderfulness of cycling as a means of transportation has *clearly* not ever ridden around central Toronto, with fresh eyes, in mid-May.

There are many, many trees lining the streets (really! next time you fly into Pearson, marvel at how green this city actually is from above), many neat old buildings, many interesting people to smile at, and many cute parks to cut through.

There are ample bike lanes, and few hills.

There are cyclists of every stripe, from hipsters on cruisers, to scruffy people on beaters, to hardcores on hot bikes, to couriers on fast bikes who do things in traffic that I will likely never dare to do. Anything goes, and anyone is welcome.

All that shitty Toronto traffic? Largely not your problem while on a bike. Ditto for parking.

I have been a regular cyclist for 8 years now, 2 of them in Victoria and 6 in Vancouver. I have always believed in it as a good means of transport, providing exercise while reducing environmental impact. All that said, I have to admit that my genuine enjoyment and enthusiasm had waned in the past two years. The love was kind of fading.

But learning my way around Toronto by bike has brought it back, and I am stoked! So I am going to enjoy every moment of it before it gets swelteringly hot and humid... and then I'm going to keep trying to enjoy it. In less clothing.

See you on the streets!