2009/07/13

Do you know what would be nice . . .

Ideally, Toronto would have an outdoor closed loop cycling track. This would complement the system of recreational trails by allowing for uninterrupted outdoor cycling for any distance.

The track should be fairly long but not too long that individual loops are daunting for riders with less ability. A track length of either 1 mile (1609 m), 2 km or 2 miles (3218 m) would be ideal. Using a round number is good because riders could count individual laps and not need a cycling computer to keep track of distance.

Such a track would need to be sufficiently wide to allow for a range of skill levels safely. A pace line of riders going 35 km/h should be able to coexist here with riders going 20 km/h. As such, the track should probably be either 3 or 4 bike lanes wide.

BikingToronto has a map up showing hydro corridors in Toronto. I haven't spent much time on these, but they have the reputation of being large swaths of unused land. If this were the case, they might make a good location for the proposed track. As an example, I've put together this map of a 2.4 km loop near pharmacy and Eglinton:


View An outdoor loop in a larger map

Note that I'm not proposing this as a location. The map is just to suggest what form such a venue might take. A study would have to be done to find a suitable location.

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