So many bikes, so few bike posts

This is going to be a rant kind of post.

One of the most frustrating things about biking around the city is the very limited number of bike posts in some areas.

Last week I went to a concert at the Molson Amplitheatre. Now it was a Bob Dylan concert so I’m sure it draws a certain crowd, but I couldn’t believe how many bikes there were and how many bike racks there weren’t.

Here’s some *very poor quality* pictures I took, but to give you an idea of the number of bikes and what people were locking up to:

Bikes locked to trees

Bikes locked to fence by water

Bikes locked to more trees

Bikes locked to taxi post

Bikes locked to anything you could find!

There were bikes locked to literally anything cyclists could find.

After wondering around and looking for a spot for quite a while, I ended up locking my bike to the railing by the water. I met a guy there who was also trying to lock his bike to the railing but sadly dropped his lock (with his helmet!) into the water. I helped him out by locking his bike up with mine. It actually turned out to be a crazy story because we started talking and found out he played for the same hockey team as my boyfriend! But that’s a whole other story…

All in all, it’s time for the Molson Amplitheatre to get more bike racks.

The esplanade is another area that could use some bike posts. There are literally no locking rings there and it’s such a busy area. People end up locking up to the restaurants’ patio fences. But it’s definitely not ideal for the restaurant or cyclists.

I recently found out that you can actually suggest to the city where you’d like to see new or more bicycle locking rings. Please direct bicycle locking ring requests to streetfurniture@toronto.ca. This is great to know! There are quite a few locations downtown I would suggest have more locking rings, especially in areas where there are so many cyclists like Ossington and the Annex.

Are there areas in TO where you notice it’s nearly impossible to lock up?