Dear Toronto: A Trail Proposal
Update: As of the summer of 2011, construction of a breakwater is now underway! This path will link the existing sections of bluff pathways to Bluffer's Park. See the new map at the very bottom of the page!
How about cycling for a practical purpose? What about those who wish to commute, on a regular basis, to downtown Toronto? Here, in the east end of the city (aka, Scarborough), it is quite a hassle to either follow the windy path of the so-called "Waterfront Trail" or fly alongside the 80 km/h traffic on Kingston Road. Enough people commute downtown in the Scarborough area, even those just by the lake, to make a constructing an 'express' bike route feasible. My father even claims he would give cyclo-commuting a go if safe/straightforward paths lead into the core.
The bluff's base, right along the shoreline, is a prefect location for such a replacement Waterfront Trail - it is flat, scenic, isolated from vehicular traffic, and would make a near-direct route downtown from the east end of the city. In addition to this, most of the infrastructure for this project already exists in one capacity or another; the breakwaters constructed along the waterfront have access roads atop them. Road improvements, and finishing some breakwater construction, is all that is needed to complete this trail.
To illustrate; below is the map of the current Waterfront Trail (the shortest, non-major-roadway cycling route downtown) running from the Guild Inn to the Leslie Street spit. That's 22 km on this route.
Also notice the elevation jumps; that's a lot of climbing and descending again. Now note the Kingston Road/Queen Street route alternative below:
A bit shorter; either continuing on Kingston or switching to Queen, it's about 18km to the spit. And look at the elevation! Great on the commute to work, but after a long day at the office, who wants that climb to get back home? Cyclo-commuting should be enticing for people, and fairly easy so as to keep 'em continuing the commute. The west side of the city has great lake-side cycling infrastructure; a cycling path runs the length of the shore and terminates just west of the CN Tower. Such a set-up would eliminate the problems for east-end commuters: a water front route would be direct, scenic and best of all, eliminate climbs!! It would be flat, for easy and fast cycling!
Here's my plan, sampling from the Guild Inn to the Leslie St. spit:
Notice that this even shorter that the Kingston road route. It shaves a km off, to be 17 km. It's nearly linear in direction, and would be insulated from any car traffic (which would allow much faster travel). And take a look at the elevation profile: It's quite a bit more flat. The beginning drop is the only large one, which is due to the need to cycle down the bluffs to the path. The rest of the spikes are due to some inaccuracies in Google Earth's mapping of the shoreline - in actuality, it is near flat all along the shore.
Within the past 20 years, the City of Toronto started to construct breakwaters to protect the bluffs, which (as noted above), have gravel access roads on top of them. These extend near-continuously from the Beaches' Boardwalk to Guildwood in Scarborough. On the map below, blue shows the extent of the breakwaters and red shows breakwaters that have been converted to cycle-worthy trail:
I have ridden all the red sections myself, and they are currently in good enough shape to be ridden by a bicycle with 23mm road tyres (also tested by me). Also, all blue parts have been personally verified: they need only rubble fill and gravel to convert them to a fully cycle-able trail. There are a few portions, however, that need to be constructed from scratch. These border near Bluffer's Park, and only total 1.8 km. The total completed bluff-front trail amounts to 4 km, while the breakwaters amount to 2.4 km of unfinished path. The remainder of the trail is the already well-established waterfront cycling infrastructure from The Beaches onward.
Most of the construction consists of dry-fill (such as bricks, mortar, rock) being pushed out to form the path. The city gets these materials for free in the form of construction waste. They may even be able to speed up construction if they divert the waste from going to the Leslie St. Spit to here instead. The main are probably coming from the heavy-weight cap stones to line the construction, with wages making up the majority of the remainder. Why not invest a little more and turn it into a path proper, with a little tarmac or chip n' seal down the centre?
2011 has heralded new path construction (as mentioned at this page's top). The new path is primarily being built as a breakwater to prevent the erosion of the Meadowcliffe cliffs, and the homes on top of them, but was specifically altered in design so that it would act as a trail bridging the existing portions. So far, they are about 1/3 to 1/2 way to completion, which is expected by the end of 2013. In the map below, red is constructed breakwater or trail, blue is where there is no breakwater or trail, and yellow denotes the path under construction:
Note: Information on the construction can be found @ http://www.trca.on.ca/dotAsset/76475.pdf -->
How about cycling for a practical purpose? What about those who wish to commute, on a regular basis, to downtown Toronto? Here, in the east end of the city (aka, Scarborough), it is quite a hassle to either follow the windy path of the so-called "Waterfront Trail" or fly alongside the 80 km/h traffic on Kingston Road. Enough people commute downtown in the Scarborough area, even those just by the lake, to make a constructing an 'express' bike route feasible. My father even claims he would give cyclo-commuting a go if safe/straightforward paths lead into the core.
The bluff's base, right along the shoreline, is a prefect location for such a replacement Waterfront Trail - it is flat, scenic, isolated from vehicular traffic, and would make a near-direct route downtown from the east end of the city. In addition to this, most of the infrastructure for this project already exists in one capacity or another; the breakwaters constructed along the waterfront have access roads atop them. Road improvements, and finishing some breakwater construction, is all that is needed to complete this trail.
To illustrate; below is the map of the current Waterfront Trail (the shortest, non-major-roadway cycling route downtown) running from the Guild Inn to the Leslie Street spit. That's 22 km on this route.
 |
| A very round-about and needlessly hilly route, but nevertheless the only route existing not involving a major roadway. |
 |
| The route here splits: one option is to follow Queen St. and the other, Kingston Rd. |
Here's my plan, sampling from the Guild Inn to the Leslie St. spit:
 |
| The elevation scale is different too: It maxes at 123 m, has a min @ 75 m and and average of 78 m elevation. Comparatively, the waterfront trail has the same min of 75 m, but a max of 176 m, so has an average of 120 m elevation! |
 |
| As you can see, the Waterfront Trail (in red) is a much more hilly and round-about way than a beach-front trail (in yellow) |
Within the past 20 years, the City of Toronto started to construct breakwaters to protect the bluffs, which (as noted above), have gravel access roads on top of them. These extend near-continuously from the Beaches' Boardwalk to Guildwood in Scarborough. On the map below, blue shows the extent of the breakwaters and red shows breakwaters that have been converted to cycle-worthy trail:
 |
| Red shows existing paths; Blue shows the breakwaters that may be converted to paths; the gaps show where more extensive construction is needed |
I have ridden all the red sections myself, and they are currently in good enough shape to be ridden by a bicycle with 23mm road tyres (also tested by me). Also, all blue parts have been personally verified: they need only rubble fill and gravel to convert them to a fully cycle-able trail. There are a few portions, however, that need to be constructed from scratch. These border near Bluffer's Park, and only total 1.8 km. The total completed bluff-front trail amounts to 4 km, while the breakwaters amount to 2.4 km of unfinished path. The remainder of the trail is the already well-established waterfront cycling infrastructure from The Beaches onward.
Most of the construction consists of dry-fill (such as bricks, mortar, rock) being pushed out to form the path. The city gets these materials for free in the form of construction waste. They may even be able to speed up construction if they divert the waste from going to the Leslie St. Spit to here instead. The main are probably coming from the heavy-weight cap stones to line the construction, with wages making up the majority of the remainder. Why not invest a little more and turn it into a path proper, with a little tarmac or chip n' seal down the centre?
2011 has heralded new path construction (as mentioned at this page's top). The new path is primarily being built as a breakwater to prevent the erosion of the Meadowcliffe cliffs, and the homes on top of them, but was specifically altered in design so that it would act as a trail bridging the existing portions. So far, they are about 1/3 to 1/2 way to completion, which is expected by the end of 2013. In the map below, red is constructed breakwater or trail, blue is where there is no breakwater or trail, and yellow denotes the path under construction:
Note: Information on the construction can be found @ http://www.trca.on.ca/dotAsset/76475.pdf -->
