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Motorist Convenience Trumps Safety 43

Motorist Convenience Trumps Safety
“Driving the Volvo” – Photo by Thomas Anderson Toronto’s chief medical officer made headlines in the Toronto media for recommending that the city reduce its speed limits to 30km/h on residential streets, and 40km/h on other city streets to “support the increased use and safety of walking and cycling”. The Doctor’s recommendations were mocked by ...

Time to Protect Cars From Reckless Pedestrians? 10

Time to Protect Cars From Reckless Pedestrians?
Pedestrians on Queen Street in Toronto – photo by deena mephistopheles Linwood Barclay from the Huffington Post Canada wrote a brilliantly hilarious satire piece about how pedestrians are infringing on drivers’ right to unimpeded access to our streets. From the article: Say what you will about Toronto Mayors Rob and Doug Ford, their latest proposal ...

Reclaiming Streets For People 14

Reclaiming Streets For People
Photo – “Reclaimed street” by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Toronto’s mayor Rob Ford thinks that bicycles don’t belong on the streets. Yet he rips out bike lanes forcing cyclists to share lanes with automobiles because cyclists are apparently the cause of our traffic congestion problems. Last week his brother, Doug Ford – ...

McGill’s Bicycle Ban & Pedestrian Fear 31

McGill’s Bicycle Ban & Pedestrian Fear
Photo “Message to McGill University cyclists” courtesy of Polly Peterson  Trying to make sense of the phenomenon of pedestrians’ fear of bicycles in North America. In May 2010, McGill University in downtown Montreal became a car-free pedestrian-only zone. The eradication of automobiles on the school campus was a great step forward, but like most progress ...

Why Not Aim For Zero Deaths? 11

Why Not Aim For Zero Deaths?
Photo “Pet Peeve” courtesy of Paul Oka A recent Streetsblog article highlights the fact that too many drivers who kill pedestrians and bicyclists are still getting off without charges – despite improvements to laws to hold drivers accountable for their carelessness and negligence. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 5,500 people were killed last ...

Flowers on a One-Way Street 6

The summer of 1967 sealed the fate for the future of Toronto. The city was on the verge of a revolution that would see the community reclaim the urban landscape to create a Mecca for the bohemians to hang out and relax – free from the toxic exhaust fumes that had smothered the city. It ...

Ignoring the Real Problem On Our Streets 6

Photo courtesy of dpurdy Sitting in a car at a busy intersection in downtown Toronto, another car approaches the intersection, barely slowing down before making a right turn on a red light – tires screeching as he proceeds through the turn. Ten seconds earlier and he may have been the latest driver to run down ...

Pedestrian etiquette

I was out enjoying the beautiful weather this evening on my street legal dirt bike and a middle aged gentleman in a Honda Accord began to accelerate at the green light without taking notice to the scruffy looking dude running across the road directly in front of him. He slammed on his brakes, and hit ...