video

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.

Back in September I posted about our unofficial contest to see if we could get some better videos about BIXI Toronto - how it works, how to use the, and why you should get a membership. (Again, this contest was just I Bike TO's attempt to see if citizens could produce something interesting and informative videos and it was in no way an official contest of BIXI).

The contest ended yesterday and a small group of BIXI fans got together, viewed and judged the videos. We felt that the following two videos were both pretty good and it was hard to choose between them, but we did our duty.

Drum roll....

For first prize I present the short and sweet Bonjour Bixi video by Luca de Franco. The group felt that Luca's video was to the point and brought the message across with a great song. Luca will receive a Bell helmet from Hoopdriver Bicycles and a $50 gift certificate from Mountain Equipment Co-op.

http://vimeo.com/15778526

.............

And for second prize I present Ms. Lulu's BIXI Toronto Needs You, an informative video on BIXI featuring the BIXI team describing the benefits and demonstrating the system mixed in with some cuts of BIXI in Montreal. Thank you Lulu! Lulu will receive a $50 gift certificate from Mountain Equipment Co-op.

Thank you everyone who submitted videos! And thank you to Hoopdriver Bicycles and Mountain Equipment Co-op for providing the prizes. Please patronize these great stores, particularly your local independent bike shop!

BIXI Toronto is 300 short of the 1000 subscription target (getting there!) A bit more work needs to be done. A little bit more promotion can do some good, but we noticed there aren't a whole lot of videos showing the best of BIXI Toronto.

In order to encourage some better videos I Bike T.O. will give a $100 gift certificate (for a popular store still to be announced) to the person who makes the best video showing the best features of BIXI Toronto. The deadline is Wednesday, October 13 when we will decide the winner. Send links to your submissions through the contact form.

We will feature all videos on the site as they come in. We prefer that they be uploaded to Youtube, Vimeo, Blip.tv or similar services.

You might need to know where the next BIXI demos are going to be located. The demo locations and dates are listed on the BIXI Toronto page in Facebook as well as on BikeEvents.TO

Note that this is not an official BIXI Toronto contest, but just this blog's attempt to get better video.

Here's what's out there right now. Someone just posted this video that explains a bit of how BIXI works. I would have liked to see someone take the bike out and ride it and leave out all the bizarre transitions. Not bad, could be better.

On Saturday February 21 2010, Scott Torrance, the landscape architect behind the design and implementation of the West Toronto Railpath led a walking tour of this wonderful new public space. The walking tour was hosted by the Lost Rivers Committee, Toronto Field Naturalists and the Toronto Green Community.

During this walking tour, Scott Torrance described various aspects of the history, design, and implementation of the Railpath. He provided a great insight into some of the choices made about how the path was landscaped, the materials used, the plant life, and more. I didn't attend this walk, but fortunately someone brought a video camera!

The first video posted here (above) is the short 3-minute summary. If you want to see the whole thing, it's broken up into 3 parts below.

There's more info about Scott Torrance's work on his website, and you can also watch these video on his Youtube channel.

Interested in another walking tour of the Railpath? This Saturday, May 1, there will be a Jane's Walk on the Railpath. It's not hosted by Scott Torrence, but rather by some knowledgeable locals. Check it out if you want to learn more about the current state of the Railpath, and plans for future south/east expansion.

Another video from riconroy, this one a helpful guide for drivers, aiding them in "surviving" city driving and avoiding nasty cyclists and pedestrians.

Driving in the city is a treacherous endeavour, full of difficulty and inconvenience. For anyone who hasn't driven in the city before the rules of the road must seem a bit confusing. Here are some tips to help you survive your drive.

Title: Driver Survival Guide

Need to pop into a store, buy a coffee, mail a letter, deliver a package? Use the handy bike lanes located on many of our streets. Perfect for a quick errand and it keeps the real lanes clear for traffic.

Pedestrians often get in the way when you least expect them. If you see one trying to cross the road it's best to speed up so you can quickly get out of their way.

Stop signs waste valuable time on your journey and reportedly increase pollution. We recommend rolling right through them as fast as the road conditions will allow.

Speed limits are guidelines only. Even the police will accept you going twenty clicks over the limit. Why do they cars so darn fast and then ask you to stick to fifty kilometres per hour?

If you don't drive assertively when there are cyclists on the road there will be confusion as to who has the right to be there. Pass a cyclist as close as possible to claim your space and reduce collisions with other cars.

With these tips in mind driving in the city will make much more sense, economically and emotionally.

Riconroy, in this video, shows us the daily conflict between drivers and cyclists in Toronto bike lanes.

There is conflict between cyclists and drivers in the city; one of the ways it shows itself is in sharing space, especially bike lanes. Are they exclusively for cyclists, or can cars and trucks use them to get a coffee, or make a delivery? Cyclists maintain that having to swerve out of the bike lane to get around a stopped vehicle is more dangerous than having no bike lane at all. Enforcement of no-stopping by-laws is at best lax.

Calvin Lau from Dear Toronto emailed to tell us that his video of this year's Toronto Bike Awards is now online.

The video features interviews with Rick and Yvonne from the Toronto Cyclists Union and councillor Adam Giambrone, plus footage of various awards recipients, the gold sprints, Clay and Paper Theatre, and much more.

And yes, of course, the highly praised "reverse strip tease" gets good coverage too (pun intended).

Check it out.

We've still got a long way to go, baby. A video about the Irish transportation system that is almost as relevant to us (except that we have nowhere to swim to). Written and directed by Jason Tammemägi. A spoof on Irish Rail's advertising.

Note: Do not watch if you don't like seeing stick people get maimed and killed.