Dear Vancouver: Riding A Bicycle In Normal Clothes Should Not Be A Defiant Act Of Rebellion 12
BIXI bike collage from Montreal, Canada – Photo courtesy of Chris Bruntlett via Instagram Our friend Chris Bruntlett recently returned to Vancouver from a vacation that included stops in both Toronto and Montreal. In an article in Hush Magazine, Bruntlett elegantly summarizes his travel experiences while lamenting Vancouver’s sport/recreational bicycling culture and British Columbia’s unfortunate ...
“Giving Up Driving My Smartest Move Yet”
Traffic in Toronto – Photo by Nariman Haghighi Our friend Nariman recently posted a photo of traffic congestion in Toronto with the following caption: “Giving up driving close to 10 years ago was my smartest move yet. Few things are more effective for your well being.” Indeed, driving in this city is detrimental to our ...
Legislation For Bicycle Transportation 8
Amsterdam “Golden Dress” – Photo courtesy of Michael Stallmeister / ratemyvelo.com If our goal is to make our cities more liveable and bicycle friendly, there are several strategies that we can use to achieve this goal. I spend most of my efforts on this blog by trying to change people’s perceptions about bicycle transport in ...
Canada’s Magnificent Scenic Wonders 12
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country A few months ago I came across this Canadian Tire Corporation poster from a 1936 store catalogue and I snapped a photo of it on my phone. The poster had been all but forgotten when it resurfaced again while I was sorting through the photos on my ...
Futile Bicycle Signals 4
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Toronto loves to take great ideas from cycling cities, and then implement them completely wrong. One good example – bike traffic signals. Cities that are more bicycle-friendly implement bicycle traffic signals to reduce the probability of conflicts between motor vehicles and bicycles. In New York, you ...
Copenhagen 2009 – We Have Ourselves to Blame 2
Photos courtesy of Corriere Della Sera.it Only one week remains at the Copenhagen Climate Summit (COP15). Delegates from around the world are hoping to hammer out an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Environment ministers started arriving in Copenhagen yesterday and world leaders will be arriving this coming week. With the Kyoto protocol expiring ...
White Wolf – Classic Canadian Rockers 2
Back in 1980, a band was formed in Edmonton Alberta called White Wolf. Many remember White Wolf as a talented, yet underrated Canadian Heavy Metal acts of the 1980’s. In 1984 they signed with RCA and their debut LP “Standing Alone” which went on to sell 250,000 copies worldwide. The band enjoyed much success and ...
Are you ‘Made in Canada’? 3
Are you “Made in Canada”? Perhaps you were “Made in Mexico”, “Made in USA” or “Made in China”. Han and I joke around about this all the time. When we compare our cell phone bills for example, she’ll joke and tell me that mine is more expensive than hers because I’m “Made in Canada”, so ...
The Low-Salt Diet 1
I love winter in Canada. It’s my second favourite season of the year (next to the spring/summer/fall season that is). I love hockey, I love the snow, and nothing beats relaxing in a nice warm home with an ice cold beer on a cold winter day. Winter helps me appreciate warm weather. If I didn’t ...
Canadian Boy 4
This winter has been by far the best winter I have seen in over 15 years. I love snow and we have been getting dumped on over and over again this winter. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this much snow in any single winter since I was born. What amuses me about snowstorms ...