Derek Chadbourne's blog

City Hall is back in business after the holiday season, but the gifts keep on coming. Parking on busy streets during rush hour, or blocking a bike lane any time has been increased by $150 fine if passed by city hall.

Public works and infrastructure voted 3-2 Wednesday to hike the fine from the current $60 for parking in a no stopping or standing zone and $40 for parking in a no parking zone.

The two dissenting votes were cast by councillors Shiner and Parker, who worried the hike is a “feel good” motion when the real problem is enforcement.

Tickets are issued by parking enforcement officers who work for Toronto police.

Shiner said their quota system — called “targets” by police — that sees parking officers expected to issue a certain number of tickets per day means they hit lots of cars at expired meters or on side-streets, rather than one car blocking busy traffic and causing a huge headache.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, the committee's chair, agreed with the dissenters and said city staff will talk to police about better enforcement.

“We are moving forward in trying to address congestion,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong chair of the public works committee. “This is a positive step forward.”

The increased fine is one part of attacking the problem, he said, and proper enforcement is another.

The fine hike would need to go to council for approval before coming into effect.

Thanks to the speedy ways of the Internet, we broadcast this important message from TCAT. No this is not from your British Cat, but from Toronto something something for Active Transportaion.

Because of an error discovered in the Rush-Hour Sharrow Evaluation data analysis, tonight's public meeting has been CANCELLED.

The City of Toronto does not wish to misrepresent the data collected as part of this project, and so the data collected must be re-evaluated in full before any findings may be presented publicly.

THERE WILL BE NO MEETING TONIGHT: Thursday January 20th, 2011

We apologise for any inconvenience to those who had planned to attend tonight's meeting. ****

The most important election facing Toronto is this Monday. A lot of people that I have talked to still are not sure who they are voting for or even who is running. Lawns and windows are festooned with political signs with names that are somehow familiar and then not so familiar. So who do you vote for?

Now I am not talking about the mayor’s race. My prediction is that some guy is going to make it in and they are not going to do nearly as much as they promised. So now that we got that out of the way let us focus on the more important race, the ward race.

The Mayor only has one vote, as does your councilor so it is doubly important to put your vote that matches your way of thinking. Councilors are way more accessible then your average Mayor and easier to hunt down and confront if they do not do what they promised to do.

I live in Ward 19 and there are a lot of great people running. We are blessed with a great group of candidates who on their own rights would make excellent councilors. After talking with the candidates and looking at their platforms, I am putting my vote behind Karen Sun.

Karen Sun is the best person to defend our cycling infrastructure, our parks and make the streets safe for all users. She understands the importance of a well funded transit system, she knows that Subways are not the silver bullet to our transit woes and that Queen and King streetcars carry more people during rush hour then Highway 401.

Jane's Dad: Jane's dad poses with donated tools

Jane Tooley is well-known among the cycling community. Her bright smile, her energetic personality and her all around nice attitude has won her many friends.

Friends of Jane also know that she is a person who likes to help out with causes, lots of them. This summer Jane went to Namibia in southern Africa to volunteer in a bicycle store with an organization called D.E.E.P., Disability Economic Empowerment Project. Here is how Jane explains it.

"The project was stared with a shipping container sent over from Canada full of bikes, tools and a work bench. basically, they emptied out the container and turned it into a successful bike store in just three years. The catch is that they didn't have the best tools to start out with and after three years of wrenching, the tools they do have are extremely worn down.

It is honestly a wonder how everyone continues to stay positive and fix bicycles. Where wrenches are concerned, all they have is a barely functioning 15 wrench, an 8 a 10 an 111 and a socket 9 and 15. One Phillips screw driver. The freewheel remover, chainbreaker pin, cone wrenches and allen keys are essentially useless. No pedal wrench, vice grips, cable cutters, truing stands or headset wrenches. I gave them my two spoke wrenches since they only had the multi-size kind. In short DEEP is in dire need of tools."

catcat: its a cat riding wheels

Hello Bike Friendly folks!

If you'd like to help out with Bike!Bike!2010, an annual conference organized by and for community bicycle projects. Hosted in a different city in North America each year, this year's conference will be held in Toronto and hosted by the Bike Pirates, running from August 12-15.

We're looking for folks to help out in preparation for the conference, as well as for the duration of the weekend. We're expecting about 150 cool folks from community bike shops to attend, coming from all over the world.

What we need to hear from you is;

Can you house any of these people for the duration of the conference? You don't need to fit all 150, but even knowing about your empty floor space or room in your yard to camp is helpful. Beds and couches are nice, but everything helps.

Can you lend a vehicle? Bikes are awesome (as we all know), as are trailers, but motorized things are good too! Even if you don't want to hand over the keys, being available to help ferry supplies and people would be super helpful.

We also need loaner bikes for the duration of the conference, as many attendees will be coming from far away without their own bikes. If you have an old bike that you have been thinking about donating to a good cause, or if you have an extra bike that you can lend us for a few days, we can pick them up and lend them out to folks coming from out of town.

Dave Robinson, the nicest person you would ever want to meet, called and asked if I wanted to be involved with Bikefest. Bikefest is a Mountain Equipment Coop idea that would bring a whole bunch of like minded people to the same location and we could all have fun with bikes, or learn about bikes, watch people do tricks on bikes...you get the idea.

Bikefest was held on Saturday July 3rd of this week-end. The area effected was a lone strip that ran between King and Liberty on Fraser street. The street was lined with booths of bike paraphernalia like modrobes, Ride for Life Bike rally and The Bike Train
I was there to teach a bunch of people the basics fixing a bike. Fifteen people showed up. I was told that all of the people attending had to pay $5 and the money was being donated to TCAT. I took them through the basic parts of a bicycle, how to adjust brakes, gears and other starter maintenance that you can do on your bike. Some of the most important things you can do to make your bike riding experience that much better are the simple things like pumping up your tires and oiling your chain.

My lesson was constantly interrupted by the cheering coming from the bar at the end of the street. Germany was in the midst of trouncing Argentina. It was fun and we knew what the score was without watching the game.

Oooooh its Pooooh

In the many years that I have been riding a bicycle in bike lanes, I have had to share them with a lot of things. From rickshaws, to inline skaters, to joggers…oh yeah cars and trucks and those other things, all sorts of things.

I have become pretty tolerant to all forms of these transportations. I still give the stink eye to cars, inline skaters in the bike lane, but for the most part I have made my peace with them. I have discovered that the things I put my hands on turn and I can navigate around most obstacles, except for what I came across this morning.

I have taken to morning rides on my bike before I go to work. It’s about a 20km ride that takes around an hour. Part of the route is over the train tracks on the Sorauren bridge. This morning I almost ran over some horse poo-poo.

This could have been a dangerous and disgusting situation. Nothing worse than wiping out on some manure. Well, I only know one group of people who ride horses in the city and that be the police.

I remember one time asking a cop who cleaned up after their horses when they crapped on the road. He looked down at me from his mount, with disdain in his voice he told me, "that’s what city works is for.” Well, city works is not doing its job and the police are crapping in bike lanes, so isn't it time that we retired these horses?

I was lucky enough to get in on some delicious pancakes on Sunday morning. Albert Koehl, Angela Bischoff and the rest of the Bike Lanes on Bloor gang held a little fundraiser. For twenty dollars you could have as many pancakes as you could stuff in your face, fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee and the company of some really great people.

I arrived around 9:30 and the back yard of Mr. Koehl's house was already bustling with activity. I hunkered down and was fortunate enough to share a table with Martino, Wendy and Davide Anderson of Clay and Paper Theatre Company.

The food was delicious, the coffee hot and the company enticing. I am sure money and spirits were raised because of the event. For those not in the know, Bells on Bloor (video) is a yearly reminder to the city that we really do need bike lanes on Bloor Street.

This year the event is on a Saturday and it will be on May 29th. It starts at Noon at the entrance to High Park. Just look for thousands of cyclists itching to remind drivers that yes, we deserve a part of the road as well.