{"id":884174,"date":"2026-09-05T10:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/884174\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T10:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:26:11","slug":"cyclist-rides-every-street-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/884174\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclist rides every street in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Betty Ann Drive is a quiet, residential street in North York.<\/p>\n

There is nothing particularly remarkable about it. But on Tuesday, it became the final piece of a five-and-a-half-year journey that took Dave Laird 6,784 kilometres across Toronto, through two flat tires and a serious injury along the way.<\/p>\n

Laird had just ridden every street in the city of Toronto, including trails, dead-end streets, cul-de-sacs and laneways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started, this seemed utterly insane,\u201d Laird said in an interview with CTV News.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old graphic designer and photographer from Leslieville began the project while training for a 24-hour mountain bike race. Unable to ride with friends and tired of spending hours indoors using his stationary bike.<\/p>\n

He began exploring Toronto street by street.<\/p>\n

A friend introduced him to Wandrer<\/a>, an open-source GPS trail tracker, and Laird began recording his rides throughout the city. He became \u201cimmediately addicted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dave laird Dave Laird’s Toronto cycling journey. (Wandrer.) <\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave my outdoor rides purpose,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat made it so addictive was seeing all of the areas of Toronto that I\u2019d lived near for decades and had never seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

With every ride, Laird said another piece of Toronto became familiar. Streets that had once been empty spaces on the map became part of Laird\u2019s growing mental picture of the city.<\/p>\n

In August alone, he rode 554.88 kilometres according to distance tracking from Wandrer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazingly, in five-and-a-half years of this: no collisions with cars, no door prizes, no pedestrian collisions, and only two flat tires,\u201d Laird wrote in a post to Strava.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely luck involved in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laird said he would sometimes wake up between 4:30 and 5 a.m. and ride for at least three hours before work.<\/p>\n

As he covered more of the city, the rides became increasingly difficult to plan. Laird compared it to a \u201cdiminishing return,\u201d with it feeling less and less productive the further and further he went.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was times where, like, I would get up really early, like well before my wife would get up, drive to like some little cul\u2011de\u2011sac in northern Etobicoke, then drive to work,” Laird said.<\/p>\n

He had initially planned to finish the project after five years, but a serious mountain-biking accident in 2024 forced him to put the challenge on hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI broke my neck and my back in seven places and had to take like six months off cycling,\u201d he said. \u201cI promised my wife, no more mountain biking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting back on his bike was difficult. Laird described the first time he put his feet to the pedals after the injury as \u201cabsolutely terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

He returned to Toronto\u2019s streets in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just glorious to be riding outside again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dave Laird bike (Dave Laird.) Discovering Toronto<\/p>\n

After countless hours on the bike, Laird began to see Toronto differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t believe how many beautiful neighbourhoods there are throughout the city,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s such a great ravine system throughout the entire city.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of his favourite discoveries was a secluded, boardwalk-lined ravine trail near Sunnybrook Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea it existed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was this, like, beautiful little trail with little boardwalks and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other favourite areas included the Highland Creek Trail, Cliffside Bluffs and the trails in and around Willowdale.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dave laird Toronto’s Bluffs (Dave Laird) <\/p>\n

Laird rode in rain and snow, except during what he called \u201cthe dead of winter.\u201d He especially enjoyed early spring mornings, when he could watch the city shed the grey of the cold winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole city comes alive. It\u2019s amazing. Rides like this were pure joy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The view from the road<\/p>\n

Riding nearly every street in Toronto also gave Laird a firsthand view of the city\u2019s cycling infrastructure.<\/p>\n

He said Toronto\u2019s cycling network compares favourably with those of some other major cities, but that significant gaps remain, particularly in Scarborough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are big areas where you just can\u2019t ride safely,\u201d he said, specifically pointing to what he described as a lack of a safe cycling route between the waterfront and Steeles Avenue.<\/p>\n

Laird said he was disappointed of the Ford\u2019s government<\/a> decision to remove bike lanes along a stretch of Bloor Street West and from two other major Toronto arteries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe on-road cycling network is nowhere near what it could be,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then to see already established cycling infrastructure get ripped out, it\u2019s so wasteful.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the map is finally full<\/p>\n

Five-and-a-half years of riding the city\u2019s streets and three bicycles later, Laird had developed an intimate understanding of how Toronto fits together \u2014 its neighbourhoods, ravines, dead ends and gaps in the cycling network.<\/p>\n

He said the city now feels smaller.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dave Laird (Dave Laird.) <\/p>\n

\u201cYou just build this memory map of the whole city, and now when I look at Toronto, it just kind of feels like my town,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Laird considers completing the journey a \u201chuge life achievement,\u201d but is now looking forward to spending more time riding with friends and pursuing activities outside cycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy I\u2019m done, but I\u2019m also sad that the ride is over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Betty Ann Drive is a quiet, residential street in North York. There is nothing particularly remarkable about it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[712,49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-884174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}