The Sunnyside Bike Park had a soft opening today.

If you see this at the gate on Ellis, no worries: just ride around on the grass to the right, and you’ll see that there is a gap in the new permanent wooden fence.





There have been a few finishing touches since the volunteer work day a few weeks ago. There are now signs indicating the difficulty of various features

ranging from easy



to more difficult.



It was great to see the first riders officially roaming the park.

The jump area





The wall feature.



The BMX tracks.



I found the black pump track to be a bit tricky on my pink commuter, but it was OK as long as I didn’t try to pedal around the corners.

The bike park is all ages.



Some of the dirt ramps are already showing some signs of erosion.

There will be a stakeholder meeting on Tuesday to start hammering out how this track can be supported and maintained by the community. It will take all of us to pull together to make this park a fun place for everyone.

Also, the Ward13 group of Cycle Toronto is working to get the city to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety at the crossings between Windermere, Ellis and Colborne Lodge, and Lakeshore Drive and the Queensway. The need for better crossings at Ellis and Lakeshore is particularly acute, given the proximity to the bike park. Here is a sketch of what we want at this intersection.



If you support these types of changes for better safety for both pedestrians and cyclists, here is an online petition.

Updates: blogTO has some great pictures here.

Toronto Star video here.