More Privileges For The Privileged Classd...

BIXI On The Streets Of Toronto ...

...and you can get answers to all your BIXI questions at

https://toronto.bixi.com/frequently-asked-questions

but you might want contact your councilor's and the mayor's office about

QUOTE:Montreal Auditor General Jacques Bergeron suggests the apparent oversight was the result of Bixi’s unusual business practices. “No one interviewed could provide any feasibility studies, business plans, risk analysis or cost-advantage studies. Nevertheless, everyone was in favour of launching this project without any of the necessary information to make a proper decision,” Bergeron writes in the report. The auditor general also says Toronto’s Bixi service—which, as in Ottawa, is run by the SVLS—will lose $600,000 this year. If it does, the City of Toronto will swallow the shortfall. Although Plamondon refutes Bergeron’s claim—“there is no $600,000 loss for Toronto,” he tells Maclean’s—if a loss does arise, “the city of Toronto must retake the dossier and assume the loss,” he says. END OF Quote.

Hmmm...

...eliminating bike lanes in the interest of National Security & Safety; time to delve deeply into the background of those behind the Bixi corporation, background checks for bike couriers, etc.

We bring you the latest developments in the international bike lane wars, which seem to thrive in the summer but inexplicably fade away when it’s cold outside, like, for half the year. Why is that, do you suppose? Anyway, in the latest headlines: Bike lanes are a terrorist threat. Bombers on bicycles could be the next evil plot dreamed up by Al Qaeda. Read More...

Something I have Been Advocating For Years Plus...

News

Mandel: Cyclists need a licence to ride
 
* insurance
* annual renewals
* parking restrictions
* compliance with acohol restrictions.

Do you think police prosecute bad cycists as they do bad motorists?


22% Yes  117 votes

77% No 412 votes

If I Have To Go Searching For A Parking Spot...

...will I patronize the businesses along areas where there are designated bike lanes? This is a NO brainer!

Bike lane parking fight

War on the Bike heats up

Peter Kuitenbrouwer: Denzil Minnan-Wong, please don’t take away the lanes we have and ask us to be excited about what’s coming up in the future

Some Thoughts On Other Things To Consider...

* Licencing
* Insurance
* Education ...just yesterday I was driving along Castlefield Avenue and there is a stretch just before you get to Keele Street where there are 4-way Stops. A cyclist completely ignored these Stop Signs and didn't even slow down and when I mentioned that STOP means STOP she mouthed an obcenity that would put a trucker to shame and continued to break the HTA
* HTA enforcement

Finally — a bike plan that helps cyclists


One-time police services board chairman, lawyer and self-described avid cyclist Alan Heisey came to the public works committee Thursday to urge councillors to consider separated bike lanes on key downtown streets.

A Fly In The Cycling Ointment...

...if inept cyclists get seperated lines then the same consideration should be given to inept drivers. Both are a hazard and increase the injury, and even death, of participants. We have restrictions for new/young drivers under the the HTA and similar restrictions should be put on cyclists along with licencing and annual renewals, insurance, etc.

City councillor champions bikes, crashes 

Columnist takes a bumpy ride with Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who wants to build a network of separated bike lanes in Toronto.

We Need To Seperate Cyclists And Bike Riders...

...because IMHO the majority of cyclists do obey the rules and the vast majority of the problems are caused by "casual" bike riders although there is a segment of "cyclists" are pompous twerps.

Cyclists or Bike Riders?

Fixer: Are cyclists alienating drivers by being selfish and rude?

2011/06/05 12:00:37

When cyclists thumb their noses at the rules of the road, drivers are less willing to show them respect. (37)

Bike Lane Maintenance Budgets Increased Dramatically...

City pays cyclist $200K for pothole crash

A cyclist who was seriously injured after falling into a pothole in 2003 will receive almost $200,000 from the city of Montreal, according to a media report.

Keep The Vehicle Tax...

...but pass legislation/bylaws that would mandate the licencing of cyclists and their vehicles plus extend the HTA items related to safety, insurance and consumption of alcohol to cyclists.

Killing tax will cost city $64 million

Marking the new year by axing the personal vehicle tax will leave Toronto taxpayers with a $64-million hangover.

Lets Give Cyclists Same Rights & Privileges As Drivers...

Fiorito: Cyclists doing good for all of us

by Joe Fiorito
 
...licensing, insurance, proof of identity, compliance to HTA including sections on alchohol consumption, penalize them for driving on sidewalks, etc.

Ride Your Bike To Work... ...

I was watching Law and Order: Los Angeles last night when a little 'funny' popped up that I liked. The gist was the two detectives bantering back and forth about an offshore drilling rig. One guy remarks that Al Gore is going to shut them all down, blah blah. He remarks 'well if you like your shrimp marinated in crude oil' or something like that, but then his partner says "When you ride your bike to work, I'll start taking you seriously'

Sex shop opens drive-thru lanes...

...will there be a bike lane?


Random Musings of a Tormented Mind

Extend To Cyclists The Same Privilege Motorists Have...

...restrictions on parking and the penalties that occur if the restrictions are not followed.

The Fixer: College St. a boulevard of broken bikes

Sun Nov 7 2010

Thirty-one abandoned bicycles were found locked to bike posts on a stretch of College St. What gives?

Valid Concern Or Facetious Comment...

Life


I’m afraid of cyclists

Too High An Expectation...

Another lesson for bike lane despots

Kelly McParland October 29, 2010 – 10:29 am

The Los Angeles Times recently documented the furor that broke out when the city’s mayor, a bicycle fan, set out to expand the network of bike lanes. The mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, grew especially determined after a cab cut him off while he was on his bike, and he hurt his elbow.
A month later, the mayor convened a bike summit, ordered up hundreds of bike safety posters and promised to beef up construction of designated paths for his two-wheeled comrades. Within weeks street crews were hard at work — some on overtime and furlough days — painting bike logos along two miles of Wilbur Avenue.
Problem was, people in the neighbourhood hadn’t asked for them, and didn’t want them.

Read More »

Giving The Left Equal Time...

Letters to the Editor

The 40,000 Citizens Of Roanne, France Reached Harmony...

...so why can't the 4.4 million inhabitants of Toronto do so?

French town deals with the inevitable car-bicycle rivalry

Sun May 30 2010

In France and other European countries, planners find ingenious ways to achieve peaceful car-bicycle coexistence (0)

Couriers/Cyclists Have Picked The Wrong Martyr For Their Cause

...blood alcohol twice the legal limit, a number of bike rage rage incidents, etc.

Cyclist had tough childhood

By SAM PAZZANO, Courts Bureau

Alcohol ruined Darcy Allan Sheppard’s life from his first breath until his last.

Vigil held in memory of bike courier Darcy Allen Sheppard

Jeremy Nusinowitz

Dozens of cyclists showed up late Tuesday afternoon to a memorial for Darcy Allen Sheppard, a bike courier killed in an incident along Bloor Street last August.
The Toronto Bike Messenger Association (TOBMA) hosted the vigil in Sheppard’s memory on Bloor Street by Avenue Road, where Sheppard died last August in an incident with a vehicle driven by former Ontario Attorney General, Michael Bryant.
A bike that's been painted white sits at the scene where Sheppard was killed. It’s a traditional ghost bike memorial. Dozens of Sheppard's friends and former colleagues gathered at the ghost bike after hearing charges against Bryant had been dropped.
Martin is an avid rider who attended the memorial and is frustrated over the war between vehicles and cyclists in Toronto. With the charges against Bryant having been dropped Martin says the justice system has sent a clear message to cyclists.
“If you ride your bike on the streets of Toronto you don’t stand a chance,” said Martin.
“If I get hit by a car no cop is going to take my side, and if I’m down on the ground dead, I have no story to tell.”
Susan showed up to the memorial as someone who knows all too well the potential dangers cyclists can run into.
“I’m not a courier and I’m not a very militant person, but I do ride a bike and I was hit by a car about four years ago and the driver was not charged,” said Susan.
“My heart just breaks because every single one of these cyclists can be killed and can be damaged.”

Even In Retirement Downing's Farts...

...more substance than Comrade Miller, Clown Council, Bureaucrats, Social In-Activistsd, etc.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

BIKES SCREWING CARS

MORE TRANSIT, LESS BIKE LANES

There is good news and bad news about this proposal to put bike lanes along University, Toronto's major ceremonial avenue.

If the silly leftist majority of Toronto council actually does something that dumb, more Torontonians will wake up to the fact we are ruled by loonies. Could make election day more challenging!

Is there nothing that councillors won't do to screw motorists?

The bike nuts see this a wonderful summer pilot project which will lead to more bike lanes on more Toronto major streets.

I think they have bit off more than the long-suffering public can chew.

For starters, roads must be built to a far higher standard than bike paths. Paths in parks are a good idea and don't have to have an intensive underpad. Bike paths on the side of roads that are so costly to construct is economic lunacy. Yet a bankrupted city has to pay around $4 million a year because the bike nuts, generally socialists who don't give a damn about citizens/motorists, want bike lanes to run down every major street in a sprawling city.

Second, traffic is already obscenely congested because of all the shenanigans of council's left, such as interfering with turns, signals, intersection constrictions, the measle epidemic of stop signs, one-way mazes, mischievous bus stop locations etc.

Since all TTC vehicles other than subway trains use this congested network of roads, any interference with the traffic flow of cars and trucks also interferes with the flow of buses and streetcars. Surely that is elementary, but not to the stolid Dr. Watsons of council.

This proposal has brought an interesting reaction from Giorgio Mammoliti, who is running for mayor. Mammoliti has been a florid expensive MPP and now councillor, and he has never seen an expense account from the public that he hasn't wanted to goose in his favour, but his idea of a $20 or $30 registration fee for bikes is interesting.

After all, if the cyclists want to have more rights on the roads, let them pay for it, like the motorists do and do and do.

It should be a token $10 for kids and seniors, but $30 is appropriate for adults. The registration number would be useful in soothing the epidemic of stolen bikes. And, of course, enforcement could be non-aggressive, except for adults riding bikes in bike lanes.

I hate to have more bureaucracy and more forms but if the cyclists want to ride with the big boys, then they have to pay their share, and it would be nice if they honoured the traffic rules too.

As I wrote in columns last year in June and May, there really isn't that great a use of bike lanes, except by in-your-face activists and politicians.

After all, in the old line about our weather, Canada has 10 months of winter and two months of bad skiing. So who in their right mind from early December to late April is going to use bike lanes on a regular basis?

You have to be as nutty as Councillor Glenn DeBaermaeker who rides incredible distances to City Hall each day to plan the next goofy wasteful scheme to rob the taxpayers.

So let the city measure the use of bike lanes. It is routine to put a rubber tube gadget down to measure the flow of cars along a street. Let them put the same gadgets on bike lanes, and if the bikes and riders aren't heavy enough to trigger them, let them do an eyeball count.

I have found on the expensive bike lanes that hinder traffic on Royal York Rd near where I live that cyclists are a rare sight. I'm with the Toronto Star columnist who counted only 15 bicyclists on a trip along Wellesley, down Sherbourne to the waterfront, then along the waterfront to Yonge St.

Of course the time of day would have a lot to do with it. And the weather. Except the roads are hindered by the bike lanes on cold wet days, whether it's night or rushhour.

The bike community, of course, have figures about use that are so exaggerated, they should make a councillor laugh, except most of our lefty/mushy politicians don't live in the real world with the rest of us but in some strange creation where the championship of ideas is more important than the cost, where grumbles from taxpayers are put down to malcontents who don't know how lucky they are to live in a community ruled by enlightened civic deep thinkers.

The reason bikes lanes are important is they are iconic symbols for the left and a thorn for the motorists and residents who already pay more than their share of this city's operation, that is if you want to pretend that this city really works.

The anti-car jerks of council are so strident, they actually planned to put bike lanes on the Front St. extension, which was killed as a project because the anti-car jerks drove the cost so high. So why do I bring up bike lanes on those proposed ramps? Because legally you can't ride bikes on the Gardiner expressway, so these were bike lanes to nowhere.

Suitable, somehow, because that's the general direction of this council's majority. If only they would stick to the basic business of running a city, which is too boring for them, so as a result we have an infrastructure that is rotting and rusty and sinking. Too bad those councillors won't follow.

Drivers SDhould Take Their Cause To Ontario Human Rights Tribunal

Complaints overwhelm human rights watchdog

FINALLY A Glimmer Of Beauracratic Sunshine...

Kenk's bikes end up in the right hands

By DON PEAT, Toronto Sun

Some of Toronto’s neediest kids will get a new ride Monday as part of another chapter in the tale of the city’s most notorious bike thief.

Where are Igor Kenk’s bikes going?

Kids across Ontario will get the benefits of the bikes and bike parts seized by Toronto Police when they arrested notorious bike thief Igor Kenk. Here’s where the bikes will be spread out:

n Around 30 bikes and more than 1,000 bike components and locks will go to the Cabbagetown Youth Centre for at-risk youth to learn new skills and get training on safe cycling. Experts will be brought in to work with the kids to assemble and repair the pieces into complete bikes, which will then be donated to the community.

n More than 40 bicycles and helmets went to the Toronto Foundation for Student Success Beyond 3:30 Program, an inner-city program for youth.

n Approximately 250 bicycles, locks and accessories went to Shkoday Abinojiiwak Obimiwedoon, a community centre for Aboriginal youth, in Thunder Bay

n Approximately 50 bicycles and pumps are going to the First Nations community of North Spirit Lake.