December 2024
If you want to live downtown, why drive? One of the best reasons for living in a downtown or urban area is the ability to get around without owning a car. Lifestyles are changing with fewer people requiring parking spaces and more in need of storage and services for bicycles. More residents are choosing to walk, bike or use transit to get around the city.
Centricity, a 53-storey development at Church St. and Dundas St. is Toronto’s first community to emphasize a cycling infrastructure. In 2021, Toronto City Council recognized this shift away from automobiles and eliminated minimum parking requirements for new condominium developments. Previously, condominium buildings were required to provide at least 0.5 parking spots per one-bedroom unit.
The building, with a planned 2027 opening, will give cyclists equal treatment with pedestrians by making it easy to come and go.
The building will feature wide bike-sized elevators. There will be a bicycle maintenance and wash station. Temporary lobby storage will allow cyclists to make a quick trip upstairs without having to lock up their bicycle on a streetside post or leave it unattended.
The building will have nearly 600 parking spots for bikes as compared to just 63 for cars.
Toronto’s official bike plan was to add 100 km of new bike lanes by 2024. This is a 35 percent increase from 2019.
