locutas_of_spragge's blog

in which I provide a tour of some interesting parts of the West End, this time going up Ostler to Dav, then to Old Weston, Rogers, and back down Keele, along St Clair to Runnymede, and back down to Annette, thence to Jane. Along the way I and make some observations about road courtesy, safety, and driver behaviour.

To judge by the number of people who don't know exactly what to make of my helmet camera, not all that many Toronto cyclists wear helmet cameras on a regular basis. Perhaps a few more of us should consider it. If more people saw what the streets look like to cyclists, we might get more support, particularly if we put our stories together into a narrative. I think about the series Whale Wars on the Animal Planet TV show. I don't generally agree with Paul Watson or the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, but first-hand footage of their struggle makes for an exciting narrative, and I have to say that having watched their struggles, I have somewhat more sympathy for the Sea Shepherds than I did before I started watching the series. Cyclists have compelling and exciting stories to tell, and if those of us who record our rides put our footage together, maybe we too could come up with a basis for a show to pitch to Discovery or TLC or even TVO.

The Globe, the Star, and 680 news have all reported that the police charged a cyclist with careless driving after a woman suffered a skull fracture from a bicycle vs pedestrian collision Tuesday July 5 at Huron and Dundas. According to the police news release, the accident took place as the woman crossed in the crosswalk with the light.

I hope the woman injured in this tragic incident makes a full recovery. I hope the cyclist behaved more responsibly than the press and police reports make it appear. I hope the public and politicians keep their sense of proportion when discussing cycling issues. I know that I make my share of mistakes as a cyclist, as a driver, and even as a pedestrian. I know how easily a misjudged distance, or a vehicle not seen clearly at night can turn into a crash.

BUT...

Here we go with another You-Tube video. This one may stir up a bit more controversy, because unlike my previous efforts, I haven't shown what my rides look like; I've shown what motorists' driving looks like. In this case, I've tried to show what passing a cyclist looks, and feels like. I have a few very close passes in two rides, both into the outer suburbs of Toronto.

This video doesn't do justice to the cycling experience, since I just wanted to talk about passing here. I actually left out a lot of really beautiful riding footage from some lovely roads because it didn't make my point. I'll try to put together another video to show the beauty and the pleasure of riding -- soon, I hope.

This video shows the wide variety of conditions for cyclists in the West End of Toronto, everything from major streets (Keele) with no bicycle lanes to really major high-speed roads (Queensway) with bicycle lanes.

Last week, riding home on College Street, I encountered a territorial idiot in the bike lane. This individual decided to open his car door into the bike lane, then stand beside it chatting on his cell phone. On seeing me, he closed his car door enough to leave me six inches to pass. I told him, politely but stiffly, that I needed more room than that, and he closed it almost completely. I rolled by him. From his comments about me not leaving the bike lane, he clearly thought he had the right to use it as a substitute living room.

Today, I ready the comments of Kerri from the CommuteOrlando Blog about "door zone" bike lanes, and I thought on one hand she has a point, but on the other hand, the term "door zone" seems to concede public space to the motorists who open their car doors carelessly, and leave them open.

Toronto does not have the road space available to give motorists who chooses to park on the street permanent control of the space a metre to the right of their cars. If we tried to exclude vehicles (all vehicles, including bicycles) from the zone three feet from any (legally or illegally) parked car, our traffic problems would go from bad to terminal. For that reason, the HTA quite properly places the onus on the person opening a car door or proposing to use a travel lane for chatting on a cell phone or looking for their keys, not the traffic trying to move.

Accidents in which cyclists get hit by car doors cause plenty of injuries and deaths. Good infrastructure design definitely plays a role in keeping cyclists safe. But in calling for better infrastructure design, it matters that we not use language that has the effect of conceding to motorists public space that the law does not grant them and which we cannot afford.

A chillingly appropriate memorial, given the spate of ugly news recently.

I took this footage riding along the bike lanes taxi loading and unloading zones on College Street between Spadina and Bathurst.