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Bike Unionist Busted for Biking down the Middle of Jarvis

July 22, 2010 By 7 Comments

What a tabloid-esque headline for a biking story!

Yesterday, the Executive Director of the Toronto Cyclists Union, Yvonne Bambrick (I think she’s also the Director of Communication and Events, but I don’t know if she’s made the switch yet) received two tickets for riding her bike down the middle of Jarvis.  She now has two $110 tickets — one under the Highway Traffic Act for failing to drive in a marked lane and one under the municipal code for not keeping both hands on her handlebars.

Yvonne was nice enough to take photos of her tickets.

Yvonne was nice enough to take photos of her tickets.

It should be noted though, that Yvonne was doing it for a good cause… trying to take photos of what NOT to do.  Maybe next time she’ll park her bike and take photos while walking across a crosswalk.  Stuff like this just provides fodder for the Sun and their readership.

Kudos to Yvonne for trying to get photos like this though:

Dont Do This. These Arent Bikelanes

Don't Do This. These Aren't Bikelanes

Filed Under: infrastructure, news, photos Tagged With: , , , , ,
  • http://www.lizzbryce.com Lizz

    How does one signal with two hands on the handlebars?

  • http://bikingtoronto.com/members/joetravers/ Joe T.

    Good question. I have a feeling (but don’t know for sure) that they really busted her for taking photos while in motion on her bike.

    Maybe Yvonne (who I can’t thank enough for trying to get these photos for educational purposes) can give us more info?

  • http://www.theurbancountry.com James Schwartz

    Let’s not forget that Yvonne probably wouldn’t have needed to go there in the first place if it weren’t for the Sun posting a video explaining that the centre lane was for cyclists…

  • http://bikingtoronto.com/members/joetravers/ Joe T.

    Very good point James. The Sun’s research abilities constantly amazes me (and not in a good way).

  • http://thedaye.blogspot.com Mark Daye

    I don’t like to criticize Yvonne, she does such wonderful work for the cycling community. But, what no one is saying is that she should know better. So I’ll say it, she should know better, (I’m waggin my finger while typing, btw) especially given her role as Toronto’s Cycling Princess. Imagine what we’d say about an automobile driver engaging in similar behavior.

    As for the Sun, well, it is the Sun and I have incredibly low expectation from that rag.

    CTV Toronto was about to go to air with a similar centre bike lane story and argued that they were right until I sent them the .pdf file of the plan, which took me all of ten seconds for me to find online. Again, where the heck is the research dept? And they have to audacity to say bloggers aren’t real journalist? Maybe not, but at least I know how to do basic research.

  • http://bikingtoronto.com/members/michaelholloway/ michael holloway

    I think the Toronto Sun and many other so called ‘news’ organizations in this city (owned now by just three giant corporations) have a reactionary agenda.

    The miss information in the Sun I think was designed to cause a back lash by a small minority of angry knee jerk individuals – who like other knee jerks like Rob Ford – that the Sun would then trumpet the next day.

    And it worked.

  • Jason

    A simple graphic of both the right and wrong way with supporting text would be faster to create and proliferate and more effective hey? Better production values too!

    LOL Mark is right she should know better but what no one has mentioned? Kudos to Toronto’s Finest for knowing the munci code and the HTA and applying both correctly







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