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Pharmacy Bikelane being Erased

October 5, 2011 By 1 Comment
pharmacy

BlogTO has a post today about the removal of the Pharmacy Ave. bikelane.  The Birchmount bikelane is also due to be removed thanks to the backwards-looking decision of Rob Ford's regime at City Council. Although the vote to kill the Jarvis bike lanes got most of the attention earlier this year, they weren't the only ones to get the axe. The Urban Repair Squad reminded us yesterday of the alteration of the bike lane at Dupont and Lansdowne, and today we share the scene at Pharmacy Avenue, … [Read more...]

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Councillor Josh Matlow to ask for higher bikelane parking fines

September 19, 2011 By 1 Comment
bikelaneparking

City Council is meeting this coming Wednesday (Sept. 21st) and Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Pauls) has a proposal on the agenda by substantially increasing the fine (to $500) for parking on city arterials or in bikelanes during rush hour periods. I don't see parking enforcement officers ticketing bikelane parkers much (but do, on occasion), but perhaps with higher fines they'll pay more attention to the issue... and you can be sure that once a driver gets a $500 ticket for parking in … [Read more...]

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The Jack Layton I Bike T.O. Shirt

August 25, 2011 By 14 Comments
Jack Layton I Bike T.O. Shirt

UPDATE! 44 shirts have been bought.  This has now raised $264 for Bikes without Borders' Pedal-Powered Hope Project! On my way to work this morning I had a little brainstorm about making a Jack Layton I Bike T.O. shirt, so that's what I did. It's orange (you can change that to another colour if you wish), it memorializes Jack (who LOVED biking Toronto), and it includes the end of his final letter to Canadians. Men's Shirt Women's Shirt The shirt is $24.95, and 100% of the profits … [Read more...]

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Jack Layton, 1950-2011

August 23, 2011 By 1 Comment
Jack & Olivia & Pride

My most vivid memory from my many years of riding in the Ride for Heart is riding along and having a tandem bike come up along beside me.  I thought nothing of it other than "cool! a tandem!" until I looked at the people riding it and saw Jack  and Olivia. I nearly fell off my bike. Thanks for your inspiration Jack.  I feel lucky to have lived in your riding of Toronto-Danforth for 6 years and actually getting to vote for you federally.   … [Read more...]

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Little Book of Rob Ford helping Bikes without Borders

July 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
bwb-malawi

Great Press Release from Bikes without Borders and House of Anansi Press: Rob Ford thinks “cyclists are a pain in the ass.” These cyclists are saving lives. House of Anansi Press is proud to sponsor a fundraiser for Toronto-based organization Bikes Without Borders, providing bicycles and bicycle ambulances to Community Health Workers in Malawi. On July 13, 2011, Toronto city council voted to remove bikes lanes on Jarvis, Birchmount and Pharmacy, sparking debate online and in the … [Read more...]

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The Future of the Jarvis Bikelanes

July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Jarvis Bikelanes

The future of the Jarvis bikelanes is being decided today (or maybe tomorrow) by City Council. If you can't make it to City Hall in person today (or tomorrow),  you can watch the activities of Council via this live feed from Rogers. Need to know more info about Jarvis? The Jarvis Bikelane is Doomed, and here’s why. (July 6, 2011) How to Save the Jarvis Bikelanes (June 26, 2011) Jarvis Bikelanes have only produced “slight” delays on car traffic (April 27, 2011) Rocco … [Read more...]

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72% of Torontonians want Separated Bikelanes downtown

June 3, 2011 By 4 Comments
Photo of Montreal Bikelane by Bikeroo

The headline for this Toronto Star article is about opposition to road tolls to pay for Mayor Ford's enormous (and unfunded) subway plans, but if you read past the first few paragraphs, you'll see that in a telephone poll (PDF) conducted by Forum Research found that a "whopping" 72% of those surveyed support the rumoured upcoming plan to put physically-separate bikelanes on 4 downtown streets: Separated bike lanes, on the other hand, garnered a whopping 72 per cent support. This month, … [Read more...]

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Despite Campaign, Fort York Bridge proclaimed Dead

May 19, 2011 By 6 Comments
bridge

The Fort York Pedestrian and Cyclist Bridge is, for all intents and purposes, dead. Some background, in case you haven't been following along: You may remember our post from a couple weeks ago when the Public Works Committee decided that a beautiful pedestrian and cyclist bridge that would link historic Fort York (and waterfront neighbourhoods) to the park system and neighbourhoods north of the railway tracks along the waterfront) cost too much money and it would be better to scrap it, … [Read more...]

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Two Things you can do to Support the Fort York Bridge

May 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
bridge

This information is from Save the Fort York Bridge , who is publicizing the following to help drum up support for overturning the decision to scrap the beautiful pedestrian and cyclist bridge planned for Fort York: 1. 1000 Letters to Mayor. The Battle Is On To Save The Fort York Bridge https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144787658927784 Thu May 12 between 4pm to 7pm at 15 Stafford Street Call To Action: Torontonians We plan to deliver 1000 letters to Mayor Ford and Cc to … [Read more...]

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Join the Email Campaign to save the Fort York Bridge

May 11, 2011 By 2 Comments
bridge

You may remember our post from a couple weeks ago when the Public Works Committee decided that a beautiful pedestrian and cyclist bridge that would link historic Fort York (and waterfront neighbourhoods) to the park system and neighbourhoods north of the railway tracks along the waterfront) cost too much money and it would be better to scrap it, ignoring the attractions of such a bridge to area residents (north and south of the tracks), condominium developers, and Toronto in general. The … [Read more...]

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The Strange Tale of the Politics of Separated Bikelanes

May 9, 2011 By 18 Comments
Denzil Minnan-Wong

The National Post has an interesting article about Seinfeld-esque Bizarro World that is forming around the issue of separated bikelanes in Toronto. Denzil Minnan-Wong, head of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, is pushing a plan of 4 streets in downtown Toronto having physically-separate bikelanes to ensure safety for cyclists (which includes novice and tourist cyclists on Bixi Toronto bikes). Minnan-Wong has not been the biggest supporter of bike infrastructure in the past, … [Read more...]

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Public Works Committee Kills Fort York Bridge

April 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
fort york bridge

The dismantling of Toronto continues, sadly, with the Public Works Committee nixing plans for a beautiful cyclist and pedestrian bridge (above) meant to link Fort York to neighbourhoods and parks north of the rail corridor. Even though financing for the bridge is already budgeted, Councillor David Shiner, a Rob Ford ally who subscribes to the school of thought that anything that doesn't make life easier for car drivers is too expensive, no matter how much value it brings to a … [Read more...]

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How to Save the Cycling Committee

April 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Full House at April 21, 2011 Executive Committee, photo by Yvonne Bambrick

This is a guest post by Anthony Humphreys, a father of two daughters who lives in South Etobicoke and is a Toronto cycling advocate. Anthony attended the City of Toronto Executive Committee meeting on Wed, April 20th concerning the elimination of 21 citizen advisory committees. From my perspective, yesterday's Executive Committee meeting went "Not well". Over forty people signed up to make deputations, but because they dealt with us very last (starting at or near 6:00pm), only about 33 … [Read more...]

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Why the Cycling Advisory Committee should be Saved

April 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
tammybike-209x300

On Thursday, we told you that Rob Ford's City Hall wants to shut down 21 advisory committees (committees that cost virtually no money and take advantage of volunteer work by passionate citizens in areas such as cycling, pedestrian safety, childrens services and economic development just to name a few). Tammy Thorne (pictured at right), editor of Dandyhorse magazine, and member of the Cycling Advisory Committee has written a great article in BlogTO about why the Committee should be saved, and … [Read more...]

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City Hall wants to shut down Cycling Advisory Committee

April 14, 2011 By 7 Comments
council

It was rumoured to be happening, but now it's official... the Rob Ford Regime wants to shut down the Cycling Advisory Committee .  The Cycling Committee is not the only one facing the axe... it is one of 21 committees (PDF) to be shut down... committees that are formed by experts in their chosen field to advise Council on matters, because Councillors do not have time to be experts in everything. In case you think that this is to save money - the report states that “There are no financial … [Read more...]

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