Saw over 100 other cyclists on my way to work today.

I love crowds of cyclists!

The mornings are getting warmer, and the number of cyclists out there on the roads with me is going up.

It’s hard to tell from the small cellphone photo, but there are at least 8 cyclists in front of me.

That guy directly in front of me had some sweet bags… the courier one was a stylish Star Wars one with an icon of Darth Vader and the words “The Power of the Dark Side”.

Today, I snapped a photo of Bay St, looking south from Wellesley.  This has been an ever-changing view for the past couple of years as tons of new condos have been popping up into the sky.

I really like biking Bay in the mornings because of this interesting, urban view (Bay is one of the few places outside of the bank towers downtown where Toronto feels like the massive urbanity of New York).

I also made notes about what time I left home, what the temperature was, and what the weather was like.

I *finally* remembered to count this morning to start off my 2011 counts and see how they compare to last year.

This Morning’s Count:

Date: Wed, March 17, 2011
Time: Approx. 7:30 – 8:00
Route: Danforth & Woodbine to Bay & College
Weather: Slightly foggy and very cloudy
Temperature: 2 C

Number of Cyclists Seen: 20

How does this compare to last year?

Last year (2010):

Date: Wed, March 17, 2010
Time: Approx. 7:35 – 8:15 am
Route: Danforth & Woodbine to Bay & College
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 4 C

Number of Cyclists Seen: 32

So, on the surface, it looks like there’s a huge difference between days that are 2C and are cloudy and foggy (2011) and days that are 4C and clear.  That’s probably true.

Another thing to consider is that March 17 last year appeared to be quite a warm one (I blogged that it was already 15C around lunch time) – so the anticipation of that probably had more people considering biking in the morning.

The forecast can be for rain, but checking the radar, you can see if it’s a ton of rain or just intermittent rain – and perhaps plan your commute accordingly.

I ride in the rain a lot, but most often in the late spring and summer when the rain is refreshing rather than cold… so at this time of year I try to avoid it.

This morning I saw that the rain would be ending for 30-60 minutes … giving me just long enough for a leisurely ride downtown to work while staying mostly dry.

It was misty out, which was refreshing, and I snapped a cellphone photo of the fog as I crossed the Bloor Viaduct.

Usually, the Viaduct offers a great view of downtown and it’s fun to watch all the new condo towers rising a bit higher every day.  Today though, it was just foggy misty white… and the sidestreets north of the Danforth I took on the way to the Viaduct were nice and hushed and quiet in the fog.

15 minutes after I got to work, it started raining again.

Looking forward to biking home in +9C temperatures.

It’s great seeing lots of bikes on the road these days, even as morning temperatures drop.

Is it also weird that I want to get a new cell phone just to be able to take better quality photos?

Here’s the view shortly after I leave home on my way downtown.  A sidestreet north of the Danforth, near Woodbine:

I’d now like to share a part of my morning commute with you… a part that I was very grateful for during the heat of this summer.

Namely, it’s the intersection of Bloor and Sherbourne as you approach it from the east.

For east enders like me, coming west along the Danforth and across the Bloor Viaduct on hot summer mornings was… well, it was hot.

Gladly, even in the hottest part of summer, big trees along the north side of Bloor where it heads northwest from the Viaduct towards Sherbourne create a nice oasis of shade on the bikelane for a fair stretch:

When you’re coming from the Danforth, this is the first dose of cool shade a cyclist gets when heading downtown. I’m very thankful for the Rosedale Ravine (which runs north of this part of Bloor)

Here is me looking tired (and needing a shave) just before reaching the shade on my way downtown:

Daily Counts of Cyclists

Above is the raw data of my cyclist counts… today was the first day I saw over 200 cyclists (222) it obviously fluctuates wildly from one day to the next… and I’ve noticed some distinct trends depending on when I leave the house:

8:15 and 8:30 departure times are obviously primetime for cyclists!

I’ve also done up Monthly stats that look at avg. temperatures and cyclist numbers.

temperature rising, cyclists rising.

I won’t be commuting much in June because I’m taking most of the month off to not get sleep at home with baby.

Yes, I’ll do a quick post here whenever the baby makes his/her appearance.