geoffrey's blog

In honour of these June follies it has come to my attention contractors working on the TTC track rehab on King St from Roncesvalles east to the vicinity of Beaty Ave will post this section "CYCLISTS DISMOUNT". There are no plans to request the same of motorists.

Those who ride this section of King St will have noted beacons and barriers erected June 2 blocking the curb lane. The distance between these and the curbside rail is less than 2 feet in places and and is pockmarked with crevices 3" wide and 3" deep where the asphalt meets the streetcar bed. Extreme caution is necessary as these will catch a wheel as well as any streetcar rail.

The city has once again entirely neglected the safety and requirements of bicyclists in this rehab.

Feel free to forward expressions of your appreciation to:

Area Councillor Gord Perks

councillor_perks@toronto.ca

former TCC chair and present TTC chair Councillor Adam Giambrone

councillor_giambrone@toronto.ca

TCAC chair Councillor Adrian Heaps

councillor_heaps@toronto.ca

This is overdue. Police ignorance is a recurring issue.

http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/04/14/lane-use-an...

NOTE: commuteorlando recently ran a series on police bicycle training.

From the CAA:

Weird Canadian Driving Laws and Other Strange Rules of the Road

October 21st, 2008

"2.) In Ontario, the average speed limit for cars on most roads is 80 km/hour, but bicycles have the right of way. Those bicycles have to be fast!

Because a lot of the laws in Ontario are from the past, some of them have to do with driving non-motorized forms or are about more public forms of transportation. Because they have something to do with the roads on which you drive, we still thought they were worth including.

Please note: This is posted in a blog. Feel free to comment and offer corrections. I know of no roads with 100 kph (or greater) speed limits that allow bicycle or pedestrian access. It is also curious to note the CAA does not offer bicyclists an alternative for getting to destinations other than those roads they appear to express issue with bicyclists using. Furthermore the CAA appears to lobby against bicycling infrastructure at every opportunity.

From the CommuteOrlando blog:

The street is an extremely important symbol because your whole enculturation experience is geared around keeping you out of the street. “Just remember: Look left, look right, look left again… No ball games… Don’t talk to strangers… Keep out of the road.” The idea is to keep everyone indoors. So, when you come to challenge the powers that be, inevitably you find yourself on the curbstone of indifference, wondering “should I play it safe and stay on the sidewalks, or should I go into the street?” And it is the ones who are taking the most risks that will ultimately effect the change in society.

The car system steals the street from under us and sells it back for the price of gasoline. It privileges time over space, corrupting and reducing both to an obsession with speed or, in economic lingo, “turnover.” It doesn’t matter who “drives” this system, for its movements are already pre-determined.

– from the website of the London advocacy group “Take Back the Streets”