Any city dweller is well acquainted with the sight of abandoned bicycles that stay locked to poles for months, rusting away and slowly being stripped of all of their parts. In Toronto, Caroline Macfarlane and Vanessa Nicholas decided to do something about it. The artists paint bikes in cheerful neon colors, often adding planters to their baskets, and place them around the city.

At first, the pair ran up against city bureaucracy, Macfarlane says—their initial piece of bike art received a ticket for being stored on public property. But since then, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has endorsed what is now called "The Good Bike Project," which has grown to include 36 reclaimed bikes, and the city government has begun donating abandoned bikes to the artists. "Each bike marks a site that embodies the spirit of regeneration and community that inspired us in the first place," Macfarlane says.

Here's a gallery of some of the transformed bikes brightening up Toronto's streets.

photos courtesy of The Good Bike Project