More photos here
A ghost bike was installed at old city hall earlier this week. As of Friday at 11AM it was still there and it has been seen by thousands... a very poignant protest, I thought.
This case will not go away i think until cyclists in Toronto get some form of justice.
For alternative views on this case against Bryant I suggest this podcast and especially this fine article by lawyer Bob Mionske in Bicycling magazine.
The sign on the bike reads: "This is a reminder that cyclists rights were killed on this spot by the Ontario justice system - May 25, 2010.
Safe rides everybody.
Update: As of Monday morning (June 7) the ghost bike has been removed. It was still there Friday during the day so it must have been in that location for 5 days or more. Quite amazing.
Toronto cyclists face a dangerous combination of streetcar tracks and motorists, the Bicyclists' Injuries and the Cycling Environment Study (BICE study) has found in its preliminary results. The BICE study is coordinated by the Cycling in Cities program at the University of British Columbia, which interviewed 690 cyclists injured and admitted to hospital in Toronto and Vancouver in 2008 and 2009.
preliminary results from BICE study at UBC
The initial analysis chose 150 interviews from each city and created a picture of the different environments each city's cyclists encounter. For downtown Toronto the researchers found that one-third of injuries involved streetcar tracks and a sizable portion of that involved cyclists falling because they are avoiding double-parked cars, cars moving out of parking spaces or drivers opening doors. The cyclists then slip or get their wheel stuck in the streetcar track.
The other big portion of downtown Toronto injuries involved "dooring" where the cyclists hit the car door because the motorist or passenger opened the door as the cyclists passed. This contrasts with Vancouver where most injuries involved car collisions.
These are just preliminary results as the full study won't be completed until early 2011. What we have so far, however, is still interesting.
This study is particularly interesting since it gives us a window into falls which did not appear in the City of Toronto's Bicycle/Motor-Vehicle Collision Report of 2003, which only studied collisions between cyclists and motor vehicles and were reported to police. It's revealing that there is no mention of injuries because of streetcar tracks, but focuses on motorists driving out at intersections, overtaking cyclists or opening car doors. The BICE Study provides a new window on cycling to reveal how streetcar tracks provide a risk to cyclists, particularly when a cyclist is trying to avoid a motorist.
The detailed results will help planners in deciding the priorities of bike infrastructure in making cycling less risky and more comfortable. So many downtown cyclists are faced with the prospect of riding the narrow band between parked cars and streetcar tracks at some point, and so few of them feel completely comfortable and safe.
This Study will hopefully put a renewed interest in improving the safety of cyclists on downtown arterials. Cyclists are not going to stop cycling on streets like King or Dundas so the alternative is to create more space for cyclists next to the streetcar tracks, ideally by removing the car parking.
CultureLink and The Toronto Cyclists Union are launching the Toronto Cyclists Handbook (in 16 languages no less) this Friday in their event, Diverse Bicycle City, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm (Parkdale Community Recreation Centre, 75 Lansdowne Avenue (north of Queen).
Various luminaries include Christopher Hume providing the keynote address; greetings from Gord Perks (Councillor in Parkdale-High Park), newcomer perspectives from Yu Li, Mari Rossi and others. Plus looks like they're throwing in some stuff that, thankfully, is not your regular buffet for a bike event: breakdancing and Kung fu demos (hopefully demonstrating how to deter bike theft).
About the partnership between CultureLink and The Toronto Cyclists Union:
Our goal is to promote the integration of newcomers in the Greater Toronto Area, by fostering cycling transportation as an affordable, healthy and convenient option. We encourage newcomers to learn about and engage in cycling advocacy and to get involved in the political systems affecting people in our city. Our work is guided by values of sustainability, empowerment, equity, inclusion, health, social justice, and cultural competence.
