bikingtoronto › Comments

hpim3225Edit by Amy Cooney. - bikingtoronto

MEC bikes! by cornelius crab. MEC has house brand bikes now! The city bikes like that there one in front there look like the most genuinely practical city bikes I've seen (they have a repair shop out of frame to camera right, and would be happy to kit it out how you like with fenders and racks, but I like to choose stuff like that for myself). Glad to see someone sensible designed them. They're light too... I picked one up. - bikingtoronto

Give a Hoot by Georgie_grrl. Don't pollute! Ride a bike! - bikingtoronto

the private automobile is the only method of transportation that is routinely given a bye past the first round of design; everything else has to be studied and justified or is relegated to the margins as an afterthought. Even the way that streets are designed and funded is stacked in favour of the car: design most frequently begins with vehicle lanes—how many and how wide—and then tries to squeeze all other users into whatever space remains. Sorry, we need four wide lanes for cars. But sidewalks? Benches? Bike lanes? Crosswalks? Those are frills and we can't afford them. Some suggest that we'd arrive at a more equitable division of space if we designed from the edges in: start with sidewalks, buffers, and space for cyclists, and then squeeze cars into whatever space is left in the middle. - bikingtoronto

Everybody knows that drivers of automobiles must pay their way. To drive on city roads, they pay heavy gasoline taxes to offset the cost. Drivers pay to park. They pay for car licences and driver's licences, which are all taxes. They pay heavy third-party liability insurance fees in case they run somebody over or ram into another car. All this is fair and just, right? - bikingtoronto

This past weekend, the 50,000 or so competitors and spectators at the Waterfront Marathon in Toronto were able to get a bandage, oxygen or splint applied by a professional in mere minutes if they needed it. - bikingtoronto

Out of its 65 racks, only 13 are actually being used, according to ancillary services. Campus bike thefts reached their peak in 2005 and the problem continues. Despite a colourful mural marking the location, student cyclist Shannon Jager has never heard of the service, which can be found by a laneway near Bond and Dundas Streets. "I didn't even know we had such a thing," said Jager, who uses public bike racks to store her bike. - bikingtoronto

Cycling's enemy is not the car; it is the idiot. And idiots travel by foot, car, and bicycle. If anything, the bicycle has more in common with the car than it does with the pedestrian, since the bicycle is a vehicle too. - bikingtoronto

Media are invited to join Councillor Pam McConnell as she officially opens the Yonge Street pedestrian promenade and bicycle lanes. The section of Yonge Street that has been improved is located between Front Street and Queens Quay. - bikingtoronto

A local bicycle courier’s association addressed the media this afternoon during a press conference to challenge the negative media portrayal of the cyclist killed during an altercation with Michael Bryant last month. - bikingtoronto

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. - bikingtoronto

Eleanor McMahon, founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, organized the first Ontario Bike Summit, running through tomorrow in Waterloo, to talk about how the province can make cycling safer and more accessible. - bikingtoronto

Police recovered 2,865 bikes and $70,000 of marijuana and cocaine. At the time of his first bail hearing, the messianic ramblings of this tall, athletic man, coupled with his goatee and shoulder-length hair, gave him a Christ-like aura. Later he appeared cleanshaven, with a crewcut. But today he looked more like Moses, or perhaps Charles Manson; his beard curls down to his chest and his mane of brown hair is starting to form into dreadlocks. His face is lined and worn. - bikingtoronto

“Sixty per cent of those surveyed said they don’t cycle, because they are too frightened to do so,” said Eleanor McMahon, founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, which is holding its first Ontario Bike Summit at the Waterloo Inn this week. - bikingtoronto

Every person who donates $20 or more to my ride between now and October 1st will be entered into a draw for a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind LIVESTRONG-inspired masterpiece by Italian design maestro Francesco Bertelli. Click here to donate and be entered to win. Click here to see more of Francesco’s work. - bikingtoronto

On-road bike lanes have been in the news quite a bit recently: the battle over Jarvis Street, the ongoing crawl toward lanes along Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, and a patchwork of lanes approved earlier this month all have cyclists applauding. But Toronto's plans for the Bikeway Network consist of more than just bike lanes on roads: off-road routes form about a quarter of the proposed network [PDF]. A significant portion of those off-road paths won't pass through traditional parks, but will follow rail and hydro corridors. - bikingtoronto

Toronto Police serve and protect. And essential to their role of making Downtown a safe place to live is the bike patrol. Constable Charles Stern, a bike patrol officer at 51 Division, wheels out all the benefits of policing the city on bikes. - bikingtoronto

Heating up the summer doesn't have to mean heating up the battle between cars and bicycles on our roads, a cycling advocate maintains. "Respect for those around us goes a long way," said Yvonne Bambrick, the executive director of the Toronto Cyclists Union, a membership-based organization pushing for greater acceptance of the bike as a viable means of transportation in the city. - bikingtoronto

Cyclists were ticketed 1,373 times for disobeying traffic signals and failing to yield to pedestrians. Equipment — or the lack thereof — got bike riders in trouble, too, as 747 tickets were issued to those who rode without the mandatory bell, light and reflectors. - bikingtoronto

There's a big, disturbing gap between what's normal for cyclists in Toronto and what's normal for cyclists in Copenhagen. Normal in Toronto means biking as an edgy urban sport. Normal means risking life and limb to dodge cars, pedestrians and, during the winter, ice and snow on roads and dicey bike paths. Normal in Copenhagen means bike paths receive the same kind of snow removal as the city's main arteries. In Copenhagen, half the city's population uses some of its 350 kilometres of devoted lanes, which is normal. - bikingtoronto

With Bike Month all wrapped up for another year, it seems only appropriate to tackle to question of how our local government can take the reigns from cycling advocates and bike month organizers by promoting cycling through policy. - bikingtoronto

What kind of a cyclist are you? Click through our gallery of Toronto cycling types. - bikingtoronto

The Toronto area hasn't found a political champion for the car-free Sunday concept, says Gil Penalosa, of Walk and Bike for Life in Mississauga. Yet in a time of economic restraint, there is no cheaper or more effective way to encourage fitness than allowing pedestrians and cyclists unimpeded access to the street, he said. - bikingtoronto

It's light, it sucks carbon out of the air and you could compost it. What more would you want from your bike? Move over Prius, the bamboo bike is the next hot thing for environmentalists. - bikingtoronto

Parents don't need a lecture on the wisdom of wearing a bicycle helmet. It's the kids who put up a fight. How are parents supposed to get rambunctious youngsters into the habit of donning a helmet when boarding a bike? - bikingtoronto

How modal shifts occur is a big question here on the Spacing blog. If you build it, will they come? Although bike lanes have been the central focus of this debate, not much time has been given to the importance of knowing whether you will be able to find a safe parking space for your bike. - bikingtoronto

I suggested that car culture has always been at war with itself: city driving has never been pleasant, not in the good-old-days in the 1960s with fat arterial roads, expanding suburbs and less cars on the road, and certainly isn’t pleasant today. Bike lanes have become a convenient scapegoat for drivers. Enter Toronto Star columnist Bob Hepburn and a piece he wrote two weeks ago called “Time to stop nutty war on cars.” - bikingtoronto

There was shock, of course, and laughter. It would be politically correct to say the laughter was in response to the shock but, no. The naked cyclists looked funny. Hairy in unexpected places. Floppy flesh jiggling in unexpected ways. And who knew how awkward male genitalia can look when in juxtaposition with a bike seat? - bikingtoronto

Just three days into this year’s Bike Month, a damp May 28th was host to Bike Summit 2009, a day-long conference on cycling policy co-hosted by the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) and the Clean Air Partnership. International and local presenters covered everything from bike parking to economic and health improvements, sharing perspectives and recommendations that could greatly improve our city’s cycling potential. - bikingtoronto

Reba Plummer, from Urbane Cyclist at the north end of John Street, was quick to fend off any suggestion that such a move would exacerbate Toronto's “war on the car.” “It can't be bikes versus cars versus pedestrians versus transit,” Ms. Plummer said. “All of those components have to be in together. It would be great.” - bikingtoronto