City Walk Online Planning Meeting

Please join us for the City Walk Planning Meeting, which will be held on-line via Zoom on Saturday, September 25, or email me your ideas.

I intend to have City Walks in some form running from around mid-October until it is nice enough to start biking in the spring. Last year we did only Virtual City Walks, on-line using Zoom, Google Street View, and other websites. This year I would like to have some real, in-person walks, if that can be done safely.

Pre-COVID, our City Walks typically consisted of:

• Meeting at a food court or coffee shop on a Sunday morning
• Walking about 10 Km
• Having coffee/washroom break around the middle of the walk
• Having an optional lunch stop at the end

I would like to get people’s thoughts on what we can do to safely run walks at this time. My main concerns about running walks during the pandemic are:

• Being inside buildings (at the meeting point, for coffee and bathroom breaks, for lunch).
• Finding suitable locations for bathroom breaks for a dozen to 20 people
• People not being able to wear masks while walking due to the exertion required 
• People bunching up and getting too close together, particularly when we stop at traffic lights or to cross streets
• Taking TTC to get to and from the walk

Some of my thoughts are that we could:

• Meet outdoors:
• • Perhaps in a park or parking lot
  • This should be fine until the weather gets very cold
• Start the walks near a subway station, as usual:
• • For people who are comfortable using the TTC (Sundays are less likely to be crowded)
  • Ensure parking is available nearby for people who want to drive
  • Only do walks that are loops, so people will end up near where they parked
• Have several small groups rather than one large group:
• • Maybe 4 to 6 people in a group
  • Perhaps starting 5, 10, or 15 minutes apart
  • Using RwGPS to navigate independently of the leader
  • Perhaps have links to Points of Interest on a sharable drive, that can be accessed on the walk using a smartphone
• Do shorter walks, say 5 Km instead of 10 Km:
• • People may be able to get to the start, do the walk and get home without needing a bathroom break or a coffee
  • For people who want to do longer walks, perhaps I could add an extra 5 Km loop with no Points of Interest, or suggest that they do the walk again, perhaps in reverse to make it more interesting
• Not stop for a coffee break:
• • So that we will be inside less
  • This may reduce the need for bathroom breaks
• Bathroom breaks:
• • Do not have any official bathroom breaks
  • Do shorter walks to reduce the need for breaks
• Do not stop for lunch at the end
• Avoid crowded streets to limit the number of people we are in close contact with:
• • Perhaps use multi-use paths until they get icy
  • Perhaps use quiet residential streets
• Maybe do virtual walks some days when real walks seem impractical

Please let me know of any ideas that you may have, either by attending this meeting or by emailing me your ideas to citywalks@tbn.ca.

If you would like to attend the planning meeting, email me at citywalks@tbn.ca and I will send you the Zoom link. Feel free to pass on link to anyone you think might be interested. I am just not posting the link openly on the website to prevent Zoom bombing.

Looking forward to seeing you virtually, and in person later on,

John Burdett – City Walk Coordinator