Raise the Hammer

Send this to George Smitherman. He's going to need some help, he can use this as a handy quick reference for the next 4 years.

I call this the Goldilocks Syndrome.

You forgot one- only hippies, losers and the unemployed travel around by any means other than car.

You forgot one- only hippies, losers and the unemployed travel around by any means other than car.

Plus all children should be kept indoors or locked in the backyard until they are 21.

4 and 1 are sometimes valid, but I can't think of a time when the others are.

There's a piece on Toronto bike lanes on the news right now... status quo! staus quo!

Comment edited by Meredith on 2010-05-31 22:22:31

Personally, I wish that Dundurn Street was wider. Driving down it, you feel like you're going to hit bikes without crossing the yellow line... and biking down it you feel like you're going to get mowed over by someone who drives by as if you aren't there.

I love the new bike lanes on Dundurn too. The city though should enforce the times when cars illegally park on the lane in front of the beer/liquor store. Last Friday evening at peak time (say 8pm), there were two cars parked directly on the bike lane so people could unload huge trunk loads of empties (and of course they didn't move the car until after then took the empties into the store, exchanged them, and bought more beer.

Haven't heard from "zookeeper" in a while so here goes:

"DON'T FEED THE TROLLS."

Thank you, that is all.

Politically, cyclists seem to evoke an "us or them" landscape. Might gains be made by uniting with other human-powered or small wheeled vehicles, such as wheelchairs, skooters, roller blades, boarders etc. These all seem to me to increasingly be parts of the urban transportation landscape, but largely ignored in transportation planning. Oh, and the kids on bikes and trikes- them too.

Personally, I wish that Dundurn Street was wider. Driving down it, you feel like you're going to hit bikes without crossing the yellow line... and biking down it you feel like you're going to get mowed over by someone who drives by as if you aren't there.

You'll be glad to know that the city's cycling plan calls for Dundurn North to become one lane each way with bike lanes each way. It'll be a perfectly balanced street with the new bike lanes providing some buffer between the narrow sidewalks and live vehicle lanes. Let's hope we can push this forward in the next 18 months and keep the trucks off forever.

Jason proclaims that ...

the city's cycling plan calls for Dundurn North to become one lane each way with bike lanes each way.

For really? I missed that. That would be super. I generally take Breadalbane to bike from King W to York, but would rather take Dundurn since the former has stop signs. On hills (which make me choose between precious momentum and the law).

And I might note that the last two times I biked to the Dundurn LCBO, the bike lanes were clear! New high score!

Though both times I forgot about the mess of the Main St. W. reworkings and the disappearing bike lane (and the very helpful "cyclists dismount and use opposite sidewalk" sign) and ended up nervously shoulder checking for the whole ride over the bridge.

I take the outré expedient of quoting myself ...

and ended up nervously shoulder checking for the whole ride over the bridge.

.. so that I can make mention of something that might not be obvious to non-cyclist readers of these threads: most Hamilton drivers are nice (to a fault sometimes) when it comes to cyclists ...

• they very often move into the next lane to pass me
• they give me plenty of room when we share a lane
• they wave me through even when they have the right of way ∗
• when I am stopped and signalling, they wait patiently to see what I'm going to do ∗ ∗

∗ which happens nearly daily and I really, really wish they would stop trying to be nice this way - it just introduced chaos for other drivers and if sometimes when I take the offered right-of-way I end up being scowled at or honked at by other drivers for being a selfish, anarchist, asshole cyclist.

∗ ∗ I've come to the conclusion that either a) no one knows their hand signals anymore or b) no one expects a cyclist to act rationally.

Comment edited by moylek on 2010-06-02 07:36:05

My experience as well - it really is a small small minority who are total a-holes on the road. And of course, there are some who are just bad drivers and don't mean to be passing two cm from your elbow...