I've been cycling in Toronto for over 25 years, except for a few gaps when I lived in Thunder Bay and Sudbury (and I biked there too!). It's still my preferred mode of transportation for getting around the city and the proliferation of bike lanes in the past ten years has been so wonderful. I've also worn a helmet cam for many years as a way to capture the random things that can happen during a commute, or as insurance in the case of a collision.
When the Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, announced he was going to remove the bike lanes on Bloor, Yonge and University Avenue, I started posting the full videos of my commute to work and home on youtube. I bike on Bloor and University whenever I go to the office and I know first hand that the comments that have been made about traffic jams and nobody using the bike lanes and delays to emergency vehicles are all garbage. My videos prove it and I wanted to make sure it was documented if anything happens.
These days I used an Insta360 4x, which means I'm able to reposition the camera in any direction I want to focus on points of interest, conflicts with drivers, or to compare the number of cyclists waiting for a light to the number of drivers waiting. It's fun, but time consuming. My commute is about 40 minutes each way, so there's a lot of material to go through.
In addition to the full length videos I occasionally post YouTube Shorts to share a specific situation. I've caught near collisions, drivers blocking emergency vehicles, and made timelapse videos of the commute.
If you appreciate this, please consider sending me a tip, or even contributing monthly. This is an all-year effort and your support would mean a lot.
Thanks.