Friday, December 21, 2007

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Calling all cars! Calling all cars!




...the street is clear!

Updating a previous post.


In the last four days since the storm my driveway's wind rows have been done no less than three times. They have also come to widen the intersection at least five times for the cars. Nothing done for the pedestrians, actually they made it worse by piling 4 feet of snow on the sidewalk.

While I appreciate their resources are probably stretched to the limit they do not have to make things worse. While this is a minor street is sees more than the average number of collisions, mostly vehicles running into the bus stop or neighbouring houses, because of a small strip mall across the street. Drivers get confused with traffic coming at them at all directions.Actually shortly after posting the original post there was a good bang up at the corner, no pedestrians were injured cause they made it onto the bus in time to avoid being hit.

Just find it a strange set of priorities.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The world has come to an end.



Those who said that Toronto would come to a complete standstill and crumble into chaos if you reduced the number of lanes on multi-lane roads, using the space for bike lanes, were absolutely right. The storm last Sunday was proof positive of this. The snow reduced widths on hundreds of City roads and very few have yet to be returned to their full width.

Since the storm the City has not moved. The financial community is in complete chaos. Retailers are slapping up "Bankruptcy Sale" signs in middle of the Christmas rush. The Mayor is thankful that it is so cold outside, thousands of seniors are suspected of passing away in the ensuing chaos and if it was not for the cold the air would be filled with their rotting stench. Garbage is piling up and attracting rats wearing wool sweaters the size of poodles... or are those poodles abandoned by their overwhelmed masters.

Yes. Toronto is at a complete standstill. Things are hopeless and probably will not get any better until spring when those lanes get returned to us.

PLEASE DO NOT PANIC. STAY IN YOUR HOME. HELP IS ON THE WAY.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Liberate A Bike Lane With A Jazz Soundtrack

Action by ARC back in when? 2003? Anyways, maybe we should get out the shovels again, eh? Last time Joe Pantalone was real embarrassed when the CBC reporter called. Promised to keep the bike lanes free of snow in future. Right.
Here is some great music to go with it from the new CD Kensington Suite by Richard Underhill called Bike Lane.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

pics for posters














I've received some really excellent submissions for the bike poster contest, and submissions are still open until January 4th at 4:00pm

(contact info below)




3 different versions of posters will be printed up and distributed to Libraries, Community Centers, Civic Centers, Environmental Groups, Bike Event Holders, City of Toronto Offices, various Associations and of course the Bike Shops.

The top works will be shown at Metro Hall Jan7-Jan 11th

The official Reception and Judging will take place Thursday January 10th at 6:00pm-pm

hope to see you out. As usual I'm eager to hear any/all input on bike month ideas feel free to let me know. cboucha@toronto.ca 416-392-7592
















Sunday, December 09, 2007

Reviewing the predictions for 2007

Last December I posted predictions for 2007, let us see how well I did. Yes there are a few weeks left.

Predictions for 2007
1. Cyclists become more organized, strike.
Cyclists did not strike but there looks like that for first time Toronto cyclists will be organized through the Cycling Union. I am taking a half point for this.
2. Mayor Miller forgets about cycling.
Easy prediction, full point.
3. TTC fares increase to $3.
The cash fare remained the same. Tokens and passes went up. We were threatened with the removal with several routes, it at best was a poorly designed bluff.
4. PS Kennsington becomes permanent.
Unclear.
5. Major accident on Gardiner causes structural damage therefore closure.
The Gardiner lives. Though two American cities had major highways devastated to infrastructure problems.
6. 5 kms of bike lanes created.
4.7kms were created. Full point.
7. Case Ootes succeeds in removing Cosburn bike lanes.
Thankfully I was wrong.
8. Gas averages $1.30/L throughout the year, with highs approaching $2.
The highest it averaged for the year was $1.18, except for the folk in Labrador City who routinely face prices higher than $1.30. We did have a gas crisis though.
9. 65 people killed by cars in Toronto.
Thank fully another prediction that was wrong... lets hope it holds to the end of the year. 49 people were killed.
10. Worst year for pollution in the last 10.
Full point.

My predictions were 35% right. Not bad for my first try. Will post my predictions for 2008 in a week or two.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Happy Holidays from O.U.R.S!

I have been asked to post this via a hand-written note that showed up at work yesterday.
It read like this:

Dear Martin, please post this message on Bike Lane Diary. Thank you very kindly.

"If you want a new bike lane or someting else bike-related installed for Christmas please leave a comment on Bike Lane Diary.

'They say city is broke. We fix. No Charge!'
Happy Holidays and safe travels!

Official Urban Repair Squad


P.s.: Thank you for taking those photos, we enjoyed them.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

O.U.R.S. Spotted in Brazil!!!

These are the first pictures of Toronto's O.U.R.S executing a guerrilla tactic in Brazil. At least that is what we think, we do not speak the language. It sure does look like they are painting bike lanes.


Check out the entire site.

This next pic is of work of an artist that I recognize, Mona Caron.
She has done some pretty spectacular CM artwork over the years.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Bikes to Rwanda

What a great combination: Coffee & Bikes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPReMcBTF2M

Why the car will always be king in Toronto... or why our City is broke.





For the life of me I cannot understand why so many taxpayer dollars were spent on re-plowing the roads in my neighbourhood. They are plowing snow that will be gone in a couple of days anyways. On Sunday I hand shoveled the sidewalk to keep it clear for peds. Then they plowed the streets pushing it all back onto the sidewalks. Then they plowed the sidewalks. Today they plowed the streets and you see the results in the photos. No way I am going back out there to shovel it, I would only do it if I had a snowblower which right now I am really tempted to get. Please also notice the nice job they did on the wind rows in the driveways. What for? The snow will melt and now the peds have to fight it out with the cars on the streets.

All this from a City Hall that is constantly whining for money. Another irony is the excuses one gets if you ask for the bike lanes to be plowed. Somehow they cannot manage that.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

November 2007 Critical Mass video

Here is a Windows Media file of last month's CM. Very loosely edited, mostly due to numb fingers during capture. I will try to post a Quicktime version later.

VIDEO

Saturday, December 01, 2007