In the lead up to and during Bike Week I will feature some cyclist profiles here on the wire. These will be profiles of regular people who ride bikes in the city. There might be the odd courier or cycling advocate thrown into the mix for good measure but, by and large these will be ordinary people who just want to ride.
Cyclist Profiles are a regular feature on I Bike TO.
Name / Occupation / Age
Jeff Stanford/Clerk-Messenger and Tutor/54
What do you use your bike for?
Recreation/Exercise/Running errands
How often do you ride?
On weekends during good weather I’m on and off the bike all day. Not much during the week.
How long have you been commuting by bicycle and what made you decide to do it?
I would say that the main reason I don’t commute by bike is because riding in city traffic can be a harrowing experience. In addition, if I have to pick up my daughter from day care, then I’d be riding with her on the back, which is a risk I would never be willing to take. If there were proper bike lanes throughout the city, as is the case in cities like Amsterdam, then I would consider going everywhere by bike, with or without my daughter.
What do you like about biking in Toronto? And dislike?
I use the bike paths, primarily along the lake and up the Humber. I don’t like biking on city streets. I like the bike trails and have been on most of them across the city. Of course, there should be more of them.
Where is/are your favourite place(s) to bike in Toronto?
The Humber trail is my favourite, from the lake up to Raymore Park. I know it so well it’s like an old friend.
What’s your favourite cycling street in Toronto?
My favourite street would have to be a street without cars. There aren’t any.
Scary bike stories?
I don’t ride enough on the streets to have had any life-threatening experiences. Or maybe I’ve just been lucky.
How could the City help you enjoy riding more?
By banning cars from streets.
How did you start biking?
I bought a bike when I was living in Montreal 25 years ago. I wanted to get to know the city. I was hooked from the get-go.
What sort of bike do you ride? A hybrid.
Helmet or no helmet? No helmet.
Bikelane or no bikelane? Either/both.
Anything else? Please feel free to rant or rave!
I love cycling. I never feel any better than when I’m riding. I’ve been taking my three-year-old daughter for rides (in a back-of-the-saddle bucket-seat), which is a particular delight. If the streets were safer, I’d ride more.
6 comments
I’m glad Jeff makes the point that he’d never commute with his daughter on the back of his bike. I shudder with horror everytime I see a kid on the back of a bike or worse yet, in one of those kiddie bike trailers. Even in designated bike lanes – it’s just too risky. I’d love to see a law against it.
With that in mind, I’d like to also see parents who keep kids in their cars, but end up driving while talking on their cellphone, text messaging, doing their make-up, etc. to be prosecuted as well for endangering the life of their child.
I favour banning the cartillery, though cyclists can also be part of the terrorism of traffic.
See alan durning in a grist on-line zine for how much different we could have things.
Instead we wish to build subways to sprawl, highways in the City, and think the way to boost cycling is to trim the cycling committee.
at least the weather changed thank Gaia!
This frustrates me. Cycling is not a dangerous activity. This type of characterization will help ensure that no one ever gets outside on their bike.
Luis – It is frustrating, agreed.
It is frustrating the way cyclists are treated by City council and the mayor.
It is frustrating to ride some places in the city.
It is frustrating that the Bike Plan makes NO provisions or plans for kids to safely bike to school.
This profile is not an advocacy piece. It is simply an average person answering questions honestly.
People will continue to ride regardless of whether or not Jeff rides to work with his kid.
But, there are also a helluva lot of people who desperately want to ride, but are too frightened to. I know them. They tell me this. I want to work towards making it safe enough for ALL people to bike on our City streets. People who perhaps are not as experienced, young or hardy as you or I. (…which, admittedly, many of the profiles-to-come are of…)
I don’t believe that one profile of someone who doesn’t feel confident enought to bike with his kid is going to sway an entire city’s opinion on cycling — and especially that of Spacing readers!
I’ll probably catch a batch of hell for saying this, but, I ask you this: if cycling is not a dangerous activity, why do cyclists continue to be killed on our city streets?
Tammy – I didn’t mean to suggest this was an advocacy piece!
I got carried away when I lumped in Jeff’s views with ‘characterizations like these…” In my own experience I see the ‘cycling as dangerous’ characterization as part of the argument that bikes should not be on streets. Cycling is dangerous, therefore, it isn’t a viable form of transportation, so they don’t belong on the road. Sort of like Rob Ford’s comments a while ago, where if a cyclist gets hurt it’s their own fault because of the inherent danger there is in using it as a form of transportation, and as a result they don’t belong on the road.
Cycling can be dangerous, I would in no way disagree with that. However, many more people die or are maimed in cars every year but driving is never really characterized as a dangerous activity. Why is that? Driving is seen as a viable form of transportation, whereas cycling is recreation, so there is no need to be putting yourself at risk for recreation.
I always react when I hear cycling being talked about as not safe, because it seems to be tied up with that argument. So I apologize for getting a little ahead of myself.
Also, I think when non-cyclists hear cyclists talking about cycling being dangerous they might be less likely to try it in the first place. And they are then less likely to pester their city councilors about riding conditions in the city.
I agree wholeheartedly and would probably add “extremely” to each of the frustrating scenarios you’ve laid out. Especially the issue of children and cycling. There aren’t any adequate on-street facilities for them, and having them ride on the sidewalk presents them (and pedestrians) with a whole other host of safety issues that can often lead to injury. Upon reflection, I think I empathize a lot more with what Jeff was saying. As someone who is young and has no children, I think I can be pretty insular when it comes to how I view issues. When I really sit down and think about it, despite how really comfortable I feel in downtown traffic, I don’t know if I would even have a fraction of that comfort if I were riding with a little one in tow.
So to conclude, we need to make cycling a safer, and by extension more inclusive, activity.