Recently a photo appeared on the r/toronto subreddit that caused a bit of debate online. The photo in question showed a man casually, and illegally, riding his bike through the North York Centre building on Yonge Street. 

The person who originally took and posted the image simply posted the photo to the Toronto-based subreddit with the caption “wtf.”

However, if you travel down to the comments underneath the photo, the conversation gets much more indepth. The top comment on the post mentions that they have seen several people going around malls, specifically Square One mall and how the security at these malls seemingly does nothing about it. 

Is this the new normal in shopping malls now?

Other people underneath the top comment echo similar sentiments, saying they have seen people riding both bikes and scooters indoors in very crowded areas of the city such as Union Station and Mount Sinai Hospital. 

Its important to keep in mind that not only is it likely against the policy at these locations to allow people to ride electric scooters and bikes inside, but it is also city bylaws everywhere in the case of  electric scooters. Electric scooters, to be clear not legal electric mobility devices used by disabled individuals, were made illegal in the City of Toronto thanks to a bylaw passed by city council back in 2021. 

One thing is clear, people online from Toronto definitely feel like they are seeing more and more people on bikes and e-scooters inside but what could be the reason for this recent phenomenon. 

One commenter on the post expressed a potential reason for such an increase being a lack of education regarding cycling etiquette. The commenter went on to say that it should be the city’s responsibility to provide “various educational resources about general ettiquete (like littering, cycling, etc) for all newcomers.”

The same commenter went on to talk about they were once clipped by one of these indoor cyclists which caused them to need eight stitches.

Another sentiment echoed in the comment section of the post was that people who ride bikes and scooters inside won’t stop if the rules against it aren’t enforced. One commenter said “Would really love to see some enforcement on stuff like this. I hate trying to just walk down the side walk and constantly getting jumpscared by dumbasses riding their motorized bikes down the sidewalk 2 inches away from me. Riding it inside is definitely a new low though.” 

There we’re also people in the comment section who seemingly had no issue with the person cycling, as the location they were in was already sparsely populated. One commenter with this opinion saying “I can’t imagine caring enough about this to make a whole reddit post.”