Keen to avoid public transportation, a fair-weather cyclist re-evaluates winter biking

This First Person column is written by Ele Pawelski, a writer in Toronto. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ. 

It snowed all morning. By the time I headed home from work, more than a foot — also known as a helluva lot — had accumulated. Downtown Toronto, usually a traffic jam, sported a few cars, some bundled-up pedestrians, and one I’ve-got-this cyclist. 

Until then, my foray into winter biking had been rather gentle.

It was January 2021. Canada was well into the pandemic’s second wave. Like most, I wasn’t doing much in the evenings and weekends. I was,