toronto cyclists union

The Toronto Cyclists Union has just announced a bike giveaway of a Batavus bike donated by Curbside and ING. The bike has been made pretty by Velocolour, a local bicycle painting shop. Anyone who joins or renews before August 25th has a chance to win.

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

Lawyer, and former Toronto Police Services Board chair, Alan Heisey, is being supported by bike union members in calling for a crackdown on bike lane blockers. Currently the city is putting in bike lanes but enforcement is lax, effectively negating their usefulness.

A former Toronto Police board chairman wants cops to crack down on bike lane blockers.

In a letter to his former board, lawyer Alan Heisey details his run-ins with vehicles illegally parked in Toronto's bike lanes and demands the police services board order its boys in blue and the blue hornets to unleash a ticketing blitz.

"There has been an awful lot of good intentions by the city implementing a system of bicycle lanes, but as we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions," Heisey told the Sun yesterday. "The bicycle lanes as a practical matter don't exist because they are not usable."

Along with the crackdown, Heisey -- an avid city cyclist for the past 35 years -- wants the board to consider putting cameras on the Bay St. bike-transit lanes to catch violators and increase fines to those who use bike lanes as short-term parking spots.

He also wants the board to ask police and parking enforcement vehicles to avoid stopping in bike lanes unless it's an emergency.

The Toronto Cyclists Union Bike Camp was a great success (see video)! Thanks to all the people who contributed their great ideas.

The day was packed with two time periods of 9 sessions from which we could choose. We were encouraged to move around and find the best fit. The sessions were determined at the beginning of the day with people volunteering ideas and the chance to lead that session. After the two periods of brainstorming the ideas were gathered together for a quick session of "dotmocracy" where people filled in dots on whether they supported or disagreed with the idea. The most popular ideas were bunched up and assigned to those who wanted to take them on long after BikeCamp. The format provided a free-flowing, flexible idea-machine. We'll see how well it translates to sustaining the enthusiasm and action the day after.

I hope the bike union puts up a survey on the day. It definitely was a fruitful day, but there are always things to improve. If you went, give your feedback! You can even talk about the "How do we make money and become popular while biking" session that I led (clearly, just so I could steal some ideas because I've been mostly a failure at it so far).

BikeCamp. The name sounds a bit like Boy/Girl Scouts, but there's a history to the ____ Camp concept. It started out in the programmer community with nerdy Foo Camp for hackers - described as the "wiki of conferences" for those who don't need to look up the definition of wiki (on wikipedia.org?) - and soon caught on in many quarters. Most related to Bike Camp is the equally nerdy TransitCamp.

The idea caught one because of the open-concept:

It's essentially a series of simultaneous participant led/generated workshops - all related to various aspects of cycling, and the politics of cycling advocacy. BikeCamp is an opportunity for bike union members, would be members, and the wider cycling advocacy community, to come together and jam on a variety of ideas, campaigns, events. The possibilities are endless, so if you are an avid cyclist with an interest in helping continue to grow and shape the momentum of this community, this event is not to be missed.

I've signed up for BikeCamp, will I see you there?

CultureLink is working with Toronto's newcomers on cycling promotion. The Cycling Outeach Worker will be working with the Toronto Cyclists Union on reaching these communities and improving their access to cycling information.

Cycling Outreach Worker – Cycling Promotion Campaign

CultureLink, a settlement organization committed to equity, anti-oppression, and sustainable living habits, is seeking a Cycling Outreach Worker for its Cycling Promotion Campaign.

‘Cycling from back home to our new home’ campaign is a joint venture between CultureLink and the Toronto Cyclists Union to promote cycling amongst newcomers across the City of Toronto.

The Cycling Outreach Worker works with CultureLink and Toronto Cyclists Union Staff as well as campaign volunteers and reports to the project Steering Committee and CultureLink Program & Personnel Director.

This 13 week contract is for 2.5 days, or 17.5 hours, per week with a primary focus of delivering the campaign to various communities and seeking funds to support the long-term sustainability and future developments of cycling outreach for newcomers.

Please see attachment for full description of position and application details.

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.

Herb and Anthony (iBikeTO)
Bike Pirates win again!
TCAT wins iBikeTO Award
Albert Koehl wins iBikeTO Award

Herb and Albert Koehl

Photos by Vic & Anthony
Full set of photos by Vic
More photos here