Sights On Bikes Tour Company
http://www.sightsonbikes.com/
Interview with Tour Guide Leader, Lizzie McNeely
Explain how the company operates:
We provide guided bike tours of Toronto on these sweet Schwinn cycles (big handlebars, comfy seats, primary colours). Our tours range from couples wanting an exclusive romantic tour, to corporate groups for whom we plan Amazing Race style scavenger hunts complete with delicious picnics on the islands.
What is the mandate of the company:
To offer people green, fun and informative tours.
Where do you do your tours?
Our city tour (depending on the speed of the bikers, their interests and the length they choose) covers such sites as the Distillery District, St Lawrence Market, Queen's Park, City Hall, Old City Hall, U of T, Casa Loma, Kensington Market, OCAD, CN Tower and Harbourfront. The island tour covers from Hanlan's Point to Ward's and everything in between. The West Beaches hits The Ex, Ontario Place, Fort York, Sunnyside Beach and Harbourfront.
What do you love most about being a tour guide?
Toronto has so many delightful secrets and it's wonderful to see visitors' expressions of utter surprise when you share those with them. Makes me feel proud of our city. Plus, I think I'm more physically fit than I've been since high school.
What are tourists the most surprised about when you take them on their journey?
By the utopia that is Ward's and Algonquin Islands. The homes there feel like cottages, yet have the most startlings view of the city. They offer an amazing model of how calm and community oriented neighbourhoods would be if it weren't for cars.
How does a bike tour differ from a busride, from a tourist's point of view:
If you get stuck in traffic you can just start walking on the sidewalk. There are places you can go on a bike that are inaccesible on a bus (like the Island and the Boardwalk). There's a lot more flexibility with a bike ride; it's easy to shift the route according to the interests of the clients and to lock them up if they want to go inside somewhere. Plus, for a lot of people it's rekindling their youth. They haven't been on a bike in years and to jump on one makes them feel young and free again.
Where are your favourite places to bike in Toronto?
Harbord and St. George: there are so many fellow bikers along them that you feel like you're part of a team, plus they're just excellent routes for getting through the city fast. I like spying into the backyards of houses along The Belt Line, and have recently discovered that zooming through the Ex is a great way to cut from Strachan to Dufferin. The most rewarding cycle is definitely when you go from Downtown to the Humber River along the Martin Goodman Trail. When you gaze back at downtown from the bridge across the Humber you feel like you've accomplished an epic journey.
Do you think Toronto should facilitate the same program that has been so successful in Paris, in having bikes available at every tourist stop?
A few places might be good - Harbourfront, Distillery - but until we have the same degree of dedicated bike lanes as Paris I fear such a program would not be as succesful. Most of our tourists are Americans or Canadians, and they don't tend to be as comfortable cycling in cities as Europeans.
If you could make three changes to the city of Toronto to make it more conducive to bike riders, what would you do?
Well, aside from getting rid of December, January, February and most of March:
1) Have a dedicated bike route going from Front Street to the lake: it can be pretty scary shifting lanes to avoid turning traffic and dodging vehicles coming off the ramps, especially since it's dark underneath the rail tracks.
2) Have safe city biking units as a mandatory part of gym classes at Toronto schools: if kids realize how much more convenient biking is than driving, they'll keep it up.
3) Dedicated bike lanes that are protected from parked cars by bollards or a boulevard: I'd recommend doing this beside dedicated streetcar routes like Spadina and just stop cars from making left turns, they hold up the streetcars too much anyway.
