Saturday, February 26, 2005

Ice Race 05


23 riders, Dufferin Grove Park. The Ice Emperor was defeated.
Photo by John Scully.

Friday, February 25, 2005

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Public Relations

Fantino is upset about a show segement on CKLN called 'Bad cop, no donut'.
Wednesday this week had an article about this in the Toronto Star.
As far as cyclist are concerned, a cop is rarely your friend. Here are some pics from
Darren Stehr to illustrate this point.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Monday, February 21, 2005

Good News!

[ARC] Press Release:
City abandons appeal of negligence finding City Abandons Appeal in Cyclist Case

The City of Toronto announced Friday, February 18, 2005, that it is abandoning its appeal of the judgment in Evans v. Toronto, in which a judge held that the City was negligent for providing unsafe cycling infrastructure.
On July 5, 2004, a judge held that the City was liable for damages suffered by Hannah Evans after she was 'doored' while riding her bicycle on Queen St. W. in Toronto. The Court found that the street was unsafe and that the City knew or ought to have known that allowing cars to park on this popular east-west route posed an unacceptable hazard to cyclists.

Unable to understand or unwilling to admit that its policies had endangered cyclists, the City appealed the decision. City staff then declined to put in place any remedial measures on this, and many other east-west corridors, which have a high rate of cyclist injuries.
Cyclists have long pressed the City to take steps to improve these unacceptable conditions,
but the City had indicated that it would appeal the decision rather than implement changes.

On Friday, the City abandoned that appeal, meaning that the finding of negligence will stand.

ARC has called upon the City to immediately address the dangerous conditions on Queen St. and on other east-west corridors such as Dundas St and Bloor St, all of which are popular downtown routes for cyclists.
"We know it's dangerous, they know it's dangerous, the Court has told them it was unlawfully dangerous, now they must do something about it," said Rick Conroy of ARC.
"The City is sitting on a ticking time-bomb on these routes, and if someone is seriously injured or killed in the future, there will certainly be an allegation that they knew of, and ignored the problem."

Tim Gleason, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, Barristers & Solicitors
20 Dundas St. W., Suite 1130, Toronto, Ontario M5G2G8
tel. (416) 979-6971 fax (416) 591-7333

Sunday, February 20, 2005

A radical and one not so radical approach


A visitor to this blog sent this anonymously. I have already seen hummers parked in the
Bike Lane. It's all about status, I suppose. But do you like this approach? Not me.
Anyways, the City has a nice full colour brochure on how to deal with cars parked in
Bicycle Lanes. Bottom line: take your life into your own hands and go around.

Or, you could call Parking Enforcement: 416-808-6600. Good Luck!

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Letter from a friend to a Newspaper

To the editor:

Re: "Designer dreams up car just for Canada," by Tony Wong,
March 3, 2005.

Italian car designer Ken Okuyama calls up typical stereotypes about Canada
and Canadians in his proposed feature list for a "Canadian" car.
Is it any wonder that the sketch produced by the Star most resembles a cross
between a Gremlin and an AMC Pacer, two of the most-reviled car designs in
modern history?

I say throw out Okuyama's list. He may know something about
Ferraris, but he knows nothing about Canada.

The fact is, most of us live in cities. More and more of us
will do so in the future. Our roads are paved. Many of us live in downtown
cores with car-clogged streets, near our places of work and shopping.
Do we need 4x4s or an "aggressive stance", honestly?

I've arrived at a list of my own. I trust you can get someone
to draw you a picture.

1. A simple vehicle to take us over the smooth roads of our cities

2. A low-cost vehicle to serve as a social equalizer, affordable to
the wealthy and the poor equally

3. A small-footprint vehicle: literally, in the sense that
it takes up a small space for parking and driving; figuratively in the
sense that it uses fewer resources to manufacture, service and fuel

4. A lightweight, clean, 21st century vehicle, strong enough to carry
its passengers and cargo, and light enough to be carried over barriers

5. A facilitator of social interaction, encouraging of neighbourliness
in our increasingly dense cities

6. A climatically-appropriate vehicle that allows the fresh breezes to
cool us when it's hot, and lets us keep ourselves warm by dressing appropriately
when it's cool

7. A vehicle capable of attaining predictable, sane speeds as it transports
us, our groceries, and those children too young to captain their own vehicles.

This sounds like a vehicle most Canadians would recognize as their own.
Do we even need a sketch artist to tell us what it might look like?
To me, it looks like a bicycle.

Given climate change, increased urbanization, increased air pollution and
energy costs, the bicycle is the only sane vehicle for the 21st
century in Canada's cities. The sooner we embrace this fact, the
better this century will start to look. We don't need any fancy
race car designers to tell us otherwise.

Yours truly,

Jake A.

50 Ways to say: No Bicycles! #5 - Construction -


St. George Street. Construction companies routinely pour cement 'ramplettes'
(little ramps) often along Bike Lanes. Despite already being relegated to the worst
part of the road, i.e.: the gutter, this practise creates another danger/obstacle
for cyclists. The City, of course, could care less.

Here are two more views of the same thing:

Monday, February 14, 2005

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Saturday, February 12, 2005

50 Ways To Say: No Bicycles #4 - The TTC -


The TTC attitude towards bicycles has been dismal. No significant improvements for cyclists have been made by the TTC for over twenty years. Instead of a partnership, cyclists are merely tolerated during off peak times. Despite a pilot project to allow cyclists to put bikes on the front of buses the red sign at the entrance to every station speaks volumes. For starters, it should be green.

TTC policy

City Policy

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Friday, February 04, 2005

50 Ways To Say: No Bicycles! #3 - Buildings-


Toronto has a vast number of private and public buildings which
are not bike-friendly. Here is one of them on Adelaide Avenue West.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Short film about rebels


I made a 60 second video about riding a bike in Toronto. Enjoy! Click here
to view (in quicktime format) Love to all the Rebels!