Toronto Cyclist Profile: Sami the photographer

In the lead up to, and during, Bike Week this year I will be featuring some cyclist profiles. These will be profiles of regular people who ride bikes in the city. There might be the odd courier or cycling advocate thrown into the mix for good measure, but, by and large these will be ordinary people who just want to ride.

Name / Occupation / Age
Sami / photographer / 30

What do you use your bike for?
To ride.

How often do you ride?
As much as I can.

How long have you been commuting by bicycle and what made you decide to do it?
I grew up with a bicycle. In countries like India where you have to rely on bike, that is your vehicle of choice because you are poor. I’ve been commuting a year-and-a-half in Toronto, where I have lived for four years. I started because I was sick of the car. It’s too expensive. I traded in the car for my bicycle and spent the rest of the money on beer! (… and I’m still spending!)

Can you give a brief description of your route?
From Roncesvalles to Queen to Adelaide to Bathurst to Front. Usually around 8 a.m. we just have streetcars and a few cars on the way. On the way home it is pretty busy but I tend to stay more on the side streets then. And usually on the side streets there a lot of women walking their dogs in my neighbourhood. Good people watching.

What’s the best thing about commuting by bicycle?
Faster — easier — good exercise. And you don’t have to pay parking, or pay gas, or pay insurance, plus you don’t have to pay parking tickets. You don’t have to pay all those fees and, you know, it’s good for the planet!

Any advice for new riders?
Watch out for the rails (streetcar tracks) and pigeons. I fell down once. Dundas and College — you know there is a mess of streetcar tracks there — my tire got caught in one of those tracks and I lost control, but landed safely without breaking my head. You need to know how to fall properly. Downtown you need to wear a helmet and watch out for cabbies.

What would you say to convince someone who is considering commuting by bicycle to get on board their bike?
There are a lot of good-looking women on bikes. Find one to race with. All the girls that bike are really fit.

What do you like about biking in Toronto?
It gets me to places. It is the easy way to get around town not having to wait for streetcars — the 504 and the 508, well, the frequency is, like, 40 minutes sometimes. It is the busiest route in Toronto. It’s a waste of time to wait for 40 minutes.

And dislike?
That cyclists are treated like nobodies in the street. Big trucks pass buy without respecting that there is a person on that bike.

Where is/are your favourite place(s) to bike in Toronto?
Anywhere really, I mean, it’s not like I’m doing it for recreation.

Favourite bike stories?
I grew up with bikes where the breaks are alternate. Here, left is front and back is right — but in India it’s the other way around. It’s funny — I don’t’ know why it is that way but that’s the way it is. Too many stories to tell, actually…

Scary bike stories?
Watch out for the pigeons…. You know about this. When I was riding under the Dufferin bridge, early in the morning (obviously it’s a dark area) and a pigeon took off from the rails and we collided. Hit me in the chest. It fell down. I went back to check on it and it wasn’t there. I care for pigeons. I wasn’t really scared but I was pissed because the pigeons have to live under the bridge — they don’t have trees anymore, man!

What sort of bike do you ride? Cheap bike

Helmet or no helmet? Yes!

Bike lane or no bike lane? Yes, bikelane.

Anything else?
[The mentality is] Roads are meant for cars so when they fix up the streets they should be looking at the fact that there are more and more bikers, so they should fix the roads so there are less grooves, bumps, holes and so on…. I don’t know how they do it, I’m not an engineer, but they need to do it better. Roncesvalles is like a roller coaster. If you want a bumpy ride go to Roncey.

Crossposted to I Bike TO