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Sunday 12 June 2016

Hello Again,

It's been almost 2 years since I was posting regularly, lots of reasons why I stopped, but I needed a break.

I finally got around to buying a GoPro camera for my bike, and I've spent the last few weeks experimenting with different camera mounts and such. I've finally found a combination I like, mounted on the helmet. I may or may not grab a microphone as well, depending on how the acoustics work going forward.

I'm currently recording my daily commute to work, 18 km from downtown Toronto to Jane and Steeles. I will be posting those videos here as part of a "cycling safety tutorial" series. I've mused about how to put pointers and tips on the web for cycling, I've found many other online sources to give out dodgy advice based on my experience of road riding. I'm an experienced rider, so I'm indifferent to a lot of riding infrastructure, I agree that it is needed, particularly for new riders, but I'm also interested in knowing how to cycle where there is no infrastructure as well. I hope to address this in the videos.

Rather than film individual situations artificially, I decided to just record my regular commute for a few weeks and I can point out issues and suggestions as I ride.

After I have a few of these posted, I'm planning on hitting the city's many known and unknown bike paths to show some of what Toronto has to offer. Not just the main bike lanes in the city but also some of the lesser known trails. Toronto has a ton of cycling greenspace, free of cars and free of charge.

I'm of the somewhat unpopular opinion that Toronto should be a cycling destination, I think that it is an ideal city to cycle in, and hopefully showing some of the wider options will make it more interesting for potential visitors and residents that have been wanting to ride but don't know where.

I'm experimenting with Youtube right now to get the videos up, here is the first sample. I start in the park along the Beltline Trail just north of Eglinton near Dufferin. The video takes me through that park and up to Keele near Finch. At around the 9 min mark I make a left turn from Caledonia to Lawrence that is worth a look, it took me a while to turn with traffic at major intersections, but I wouldn't do it any other way now.

Cycle Commute June 9th Part 1 Northbound:


Youtube Link

Cycle Commute June 9 Northbound - Part 2



Youtube link

Cycle Commute - June 9 - Northbound - Part 3



Youtube Link

Cheers,

Ian

4 comments:

  1. Hi Ian!
    It's awesome to see you blogging.

    This is Zarina - one of your students from NATS class (I used to come to your office nearly every week haha. Visit me at KasottyBlog.com to look at the picture, if you don't remember me - I realize that you have a lot of students every year!)

    You know, your NATS 1510 class had a great impact on me and every time I come across environment-wise, I recall the lessons learned! Rarely something has such a profound effect on me, especially in a topic that I had zero interest before.

    I recently found your blog somewhere on my papers and decided to check it out - and here you are!

    You have some great content here - I wish you could monetize your blog too, it's always to have a side money from doing something you love and reach a larger audience from Google. If you ever decide to do so, let me know, I will be extremely happy to share some tips with you.

    I hope all is well with you and I am looking forward to read your future blog posts!

    Zarina
    http://KasottyBlog.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zarina,

      Glad to hear you enjoyed the course, I enjoyed teaching it too. I'll check out your blog for suggestions on how to develop my own, thanks.

      I don't always put my teaching and my cycling together in my own head, but there are lots of connections there.

      Good to hear from you, enjoy your summer, ride your bike!

      Yours,

      Ian

      Delete
  2. Good to see you back - I just came here as I was actually deleting blogs no longer active LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Go figure.
    Good to be back, I'm recording video like mad right now and I'm hoping to cover the major city parks and river trails over the summer.
    Thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete