Baby And The Bicycle 15
Photo of baby Sofia by Jamie Morren – All rights reserved Today’s post is about two things that play a prominent role in my life right now: my baby and my bicycle. We took our baby Sofia for her first foray into modeling: an outdoor photo shoot. I decided to bring my bicycle with me ...
How To Win Over Non-Cyclists at a Dinner Party 18
Bicycle Film Festival Panel Discussion at the Gladstone Hotel (Aug 10, 2011) – photo by Erin Simkin / Bicycle Film Festival Toronto Last Wednesday I participated in a panel discussion for the Toronto Bicycle Film Festival. The title of the panel discussion was: “Building Bridges: How to tell good stories and win over non-cyclists at ...
When Driver Kills Cyclist, Media Shrugs… 22
Screenshot from InsideToronto.com article on 84-year-old Jack Roper, the cyclist killed last Friday On July 5th, a cyclist struck and critically injured a pedestrian in Toronto. The pedestrian survived, but this incident set off a flurry of media rage against cyclists. The Toronto Star’s first report on the incident (“Cyclist fractures pedestrian’s skull, gets $400 ...
The Fixer Gets It Right 14
Mother and her three children riding home from school – by Brad Hawkins / Courtesy of RateMyVelo.com Two weeks ago I wrote an open letter to Toronto Star newspaper columnist Jack Lakey who calls himself “The Fixer” because he fixes things that are “broken in your neighbourhood”. I critiqued “The Fixer” for his angry rant ...
Friday Fun: The Future Of Toronto 16
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Toronto City Council voted this week to rip out 3 existing bike lanes in the city – an unprecedented measure that may compromise Toronto’s world renown designation as “the best place to ride a bicycle in Toronto”. In return for the removal of the bike lanes, ...
“The Fixer” Not Fixing Anything 30
Photo of a cyclist passing the photographer who was probably blocking the right lane. Photo by Jack Lakey / Toronto Star Below is an open letter from me to a Toronto Star writer Jack Lakey, who calls himself “The Fixer” because he fixes things that are “broken in your neighbourhood”. The Fixer recently wrote an ...
Reclaiming Streets For People 14
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 – ...
Do-It-Yourself Neighbourhood Bike Share 17
Do-it-yourself bike share – Photo by Xander / 416CycleStyle.com You won’t find BIXI bike sharing in his neck of the woods. In fact, BIXI may never cover his west Toronto neighbourhood. Instead of waiting, ‘Xander from 416CycleStyle.com set-up his own DIY community bike share system in his neighbourhood to provide his neighbours bicycles for hire: ...
No Cars. No Traffic Signals. No Deaths. 78
Photo by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country Are car-free liveable communities the way of the future? On Friday I posted a video highlighting how most Toronto Cyclists are considerate of others and are just trying to get to their destination in an imperfect city with streets and laws that were designed for automobiles. ...
Toronto Cyclists Are Selfish And Rude? 55
Being considerate – whether on a bicycle, in a motor car, or on your feet – is important to improving conditions on our shared streets. Treat others as you would like to be treated. If we all lived by that golden rule, our streets would be a much more pleasant place to be. Instead of ...