Raise the Hammer

I agree completely. There is a serious cultural problem in this region which is costing many lives and holding back the potential quality of life.

There is a brown cloud of smog frequently enveloping this region. The GTA has the honor of being declared worse than LA for traffic congestion. Traffic fatalities are announced every single day, almost without exception.

And what are we doing?

LRT dies in Hamilton. Transit City dies in Toronto. I see people running in a panic for their GO train and feel really bad because if they miss it, it is a long wait for the next one. These corrupt retards in charge couldn't fix a straw if it was bent, let alone extend all day GO service. Newspaper articles continue to foment a viewpoint that bikes and bike lanes are somehow part of the problem. And, in many of these articles, and worse, the comments they generate, collective punishment is dished out on the vulnerable demographic of non motorized travelers. We (cyclists) are a bunch of anarchist, law breaking, entitled, selfish road hogs. Well there is another side to existence; another point of view. Also collective punishment is contrary to United Nations human rights laws. There is a spirit of collective punishment going on here also.

I travel to other cities and countries and see parents, children, healthy beautiful women, elderly, professionals, students, really people of all ages safely getting around on their bikes. I want to live and work in one of these places very very much.

Here is what it is like riding according to the textbook MTO guidelines for cycling: Busted pavement and sinking sewer grates. Angry drivers speeding past almost hitting you like you're not even there. Angry engine revs. Horn honks. Right hooks. For daring to use one meter of the right lane of a multi-lane arterial.

Have people like Andrew Dreschel, have city councillors, have people that get stirred up to hatred even at the mention of the topic, have people imagined what it must be like to be on the receiving end of this. To have anxiety attacks because it is time to commute to work.

Have people stopped to consider the anxiety, the pain, the suffering that this sick culture is imposing on some of its youngest, fittest, and healthiest citizens. To have to have anxiety attacks anticipating your bike ride home from the GO station. To ride carefully - MTO best practices, lights, helmet, etc, and yet have to pray every single day for protection so a rogue driver does not kill. Then to come home, open the news, and see Jenna Morrison's death on the front page. While Mayor Ford removes bike lanes. The pain and anguish of another loss of a beautiful mother who is an asset to her community.

But many who lack perspective and balance are desensitized to constantly murdering each other with horseless chariots. Keep getting offended when someone points out the human side of all of this. Keep fomenting petty fights over rules and infrastructure that would improve this. There you go. Keep getting offended. Your right to speed through the residential neighborhoods is way more important.

These are just the words of a breaking heart, horrified at what I still see in newspapers and comments.