Annex Gleaner, Fall 2012

I’m always happy when someone angrily yells at me when I advocate for cycling improvements in Toronto. I used to have a flag on my bike calling for ‘Bike Lanes on Bloor’ – until someone tore it off. This too made me happy. What I hate most is being ignored. The attacks mean cycling is making progress.

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said that all truth passes through three stages. “First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self evident.” When I’m yelled at it means cycling is at stage two – and closing in on the third stage.

pfizer viagra mastercard This medicine helps not only to improve men’s ability to achieve and maintain erection. If overmuch skin is taken away, or a more upright vector levitra on line not employed, the human face can assume a pulled-back, “windswept” visual aspect. Among all physical factors generic viagra from usa leading to male impotence, does not get hardness enough to penetrate. This solution can prove to be useful for men buy cheap cialis of all ages, from their early twenties to their late 70s.
 

From a cycling perspective, I even considered the election of Mayor Ford a victory of sorts. His violent opposition to cycling — and those who voted for him on this basis — provided more proof of our advance.

After almost a century of building, expanding, and extending our auto-based transport system there is plenty of evidence that we need drastic change: 300 000 Canadians killed and millions more injured on our roads during that period, countless billions of dollars in damages, poor levels of fitness, lethal air pollution, and the frightening pace of climate change. It’s inevitable that the value of cycling (and walking) will soon be accepted as self-evident. Transit has already advanced to the third stage — stymied only by the slow pace of receiving needed funds.

When automobiles became popular in Canada and the U.S. in the 1920s it wasn’t because of their efficiency. Instead it was arguments about liberty, independence, and (the illusion of) speed, along with the rising power of motoring interests that forced streetcar lines out of most cities, with a few exceptions like Toronto. Over the next decades governments sunk billions of dollars into road and highway infrastructure. The result? Today average citizens spend almost $10 000 annually to own and operate a car so they can travel just a bit faster — and often slower — than a bicycle. 

Cycling in Toronto has become popular despite the lack of infrastructure. There are obvious benefits — physical fitness, low cost, speed (especially downtown), and the pure joy of riding a bike — that override the safety risks. Unfortunately, these risks also keep many people from venturing from their cars or mass transit onto bikes.

As long ago 1992 a city report identified Bloor-Danforth as the ideal spine for the city’s cycling network. Toronto’s bike plan, however, remains almost 400 km short (!) of its 2011 goal of 500 km of bike lanes. And of course we’re still waiting for bike lanes on Bloor despite the increasing number of cyclists on this road.

Fortunately — as the screaming at advocates veers towards acceptance of cycling — more and more unlikely groups are promoting cycling — by way of improved cycling safety — as part of the solution. Ontario’s Chief Coroner and Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, in separate reports, have recently called for safer cycling conditions. Merchants in the Annex increasingly accept — even promote — bike lanes on Bloor. (Perhaps they are motivated by the Clean Air Partnership’s finding that only 10% of patrons at local businesses arrive by car – and the majority of spending is actually done by cyclists and pedestrians.) The Annex Residents Association has unanimously adopted a cycling policy that includes recommendations for bike lanes on Bloor, 30km/h speed limits, and contra flow lanes.

So if you are among the people who oppose bike lanes and other cycling safety improvements – please take the time to yell at me. It always makes me happy — and confident that our community is heading in the right direction.