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Bikely Keeps you Safe(r)

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A website called Bikely lets people use Google maps to plot out their favorite bike routes and share them with others. The safe routes, escape routes, direct and indirect routes people take on their bikes can now be followed, step by step, by the rest of us. When Google opened up their maps allowing people to use them for a bunch of different purposes like this, it may have been one of the greatest moments in the history of the Internet. Bikely mentions they are very young and” need more than anything people like you to submit their favorite bike paths.”

There are already a handful of Ontario entries, including this commute from the Junction to Downtown. One of the best biking hints I picked up (which I routinely forget) was in Now magazine some years ago, about how to get up to St. Clair and avoid the escarpment — the secret was somewhere over near Oakwood. I always give up trying to remember and go up Christie, regretting it and swearing at nobody in particular.

(This was found via Curbed LA, who lamented there was only one entry for the Los Angeles area. Poor LA)

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6 comments

  1. One block east of Ossington at Davenport is where you can avoid it. Very minor slope. The street is caled Brackendale.

  2. There’s a ravine-avoidance route through Rosedale, too… I’ll post it on Bikely. 🙂

  4. My favorite route involves almost no road travel, but covers a large portion of the city: I take my bike on the subway up to Eglinton Station West, and then get on the Belt Line –> Mount Pleasant Cemetery –> Moore Park Ravine –> Don Valley Bike Path –> Queen (and eventually to the waterfront trail after the construction that has the final portion of the Don Valley Path closed is finished). It’s almost all downhill, and is very fun. Also, it’s practical when travelling from the north-central part of the city down to the Danforth or waterfront east of Yonge. I mapped it out here: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Eglinton-West-Station-to-Waterfront-almost

  5. Agreed, Sean… that’s a very fun ride. I love the Beltline and the Moore Park Ravine (which is my favourite ride… going south, of course. haha).

  6. So glad to hear I’m not the only totally-not-macho cyclist!

    This is a fantastic resource!