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The Driver Privilege Checklist 51

The Driver Privilege Checklist
RIP Jenna Morrison – Photo by Aaron Lynett / National Post On Monday morning, a wife, mother and yoga instructor who was 5-months pregnant was run over by a truck and killed in Toronto in a completely avoidable incident. This senseless death has been on the minds of thousands of people in Toronto because it ...

GM Pulls Anti-Cycling Ad 18

GM Pulls Anti-Cycling Ad
GM ad provided by BikePortland.org GM faced intense heat from the bicycling advocacy world after the League of American Bicyclists brought attention to a GM ad aiming to sell cars to students. The ad is called “Reality Sucks” and reads “Stop pedaling… start driving” while showing a dorky guy on a bicycle trying to hide ...

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 ...

Motorists Prime Beneficiaries of Socialism 116

Motorists Prime Beneficiaries of Socialism
The freedom of driving (or not) – a Toronto traffic jam by wyliepoon Whether they like it or not, most motorists are socialists. The American media tends to generally associate the term socialism with social assistance such as welfare, but socialism comes in different forms. That same media is also littered with driver self-pity over ...

On The Inferiority of Bicyclists and Gay People 54

On The Inferiority of Bicyclists and Gay People
“Amsterdam Summer” by Michael Stallmeister / RateMyVelo.com Last night I visited a friend in the “Beach” – a trendy area in the east end of Toronto comprised of a popular stretch of beach frequented by tourists and residents alike. Throughout the night I encountered two separate incidents in which I was ridiculed for riding a ...

When Driver Kills Cyclist, Media Shrugs… 22

When Driver Kills Cyclist, Media Shrugs…
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 ...

On Scofflaw Cyclists & Exemplary Motorists 59

On Scofflaw Cyclists & Exemplary Motorists
“Amsterdam, girl cycling from A to B, multi-tasking, like so many do” by Amsterdamize / RateMyVelo.com You have heard it a million times before: Cyclists don’t deserve any respect on our streets until they obey all of the laws. The implicit message in this fallacy is that drivers have a right to be angry and ...

Once Upon a Car Ownership: 8 Months Later 59

Once Upon a Car Ownership: 8 Months Later
Infinity MPG t-shirt by Noisebot (don’t worry, I’m not getting any kickbacks if you buy this t-shirt) I had owned a car for most of my adult life – ever since I acquired my driver’s permit in 1996. After moving to Toronto in 2002, my car mostly sat in the garage collecting dust, but conveniently ...

Our Backwards Approach to Road Safety 29

Our Backwards Approach to Road Safety
A family in Copenhagen by MarkA / RateMyVelo.com English-speaking countries generally take a backwards approach to improving road safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Instead of addressing the root causes of danger, politicians implement band-aid solutions that ignore the root cause in the name of maintaining unimpeded traffic flow for motor vehicles. In most cases, motor ...

No Cars. No Traffic Signals. No Deaths. 78

No Cars. No Traffic Signals. No Deaths.
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. ...