Interesting posts. BTW I was born in Stockport but came here as a very young child). Lived in Toronto (pronounced Trawna) and the GTA all my life. Still in Toronto but we are planning to move out to somewhere less crowded.
My wife and I regulary bike the Niagara region. Great scenery, little traffic, and hundreds of kms. The regional goverment encourages bicyclists to the area. It's about a 45 minute drive from west Toronto. Another great bicycling area is Prince Edward County about 2 hours west of Toronto. A third is Perth in the Ottawa valley. I've included some links you may want to look at:
http://perthchamber.com/cycling-route-maps/
http://www.niagararegion.ca/explorin...e/default.aspx
http://prince-edward-county.com/?page_id=72
Oops: Prince Edward County is about 2 hours EAST of Toronto
As to commuting by bike in Toronto, I'd say we are making good headway. More MUP's, more bike lanes, a public bicycle rental program on the way, etc. Still Toronto, actually the whoe GTA is subject to a lot of gridlock and it is not getting any better.