During Bike Week, and possibly beyond, 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
John Martin/ cycle messenger and stained-glass artist/ 35
What do you use your bike for?
Work and well, largely work…
How often do you ride?
6 days a week.
How long have you been commuting by bicycle and what made you decide to do it?
Well I ride for work, so my job is riding, so, I don’t know… the romance of the road. Haha. I thought it would be a fun job, but didn’t intend to be doing it this long. It will be 10 years in October.
Can you give a brief description of your commute route?
Just College and Dufferin into the downtown core…usually along College or Dundas or Queen depending on where my first call is. Sometimes Harbord.
What’s the best thing about commuting by bicycle?
Not getting stuck in traffic
Any advice for new riders?
Assume every car is about to hit you. Just make sure you have an escape strategy for every car… doors opening, unexpected U-turns, stopping suddenly in front of you… drivers are cocooned in their little metal worlds and they’re not aware of what is around them — only what is in front of them.
What would you say to convince someone who is considering commuting by bicycle to get on board their bike?
As long as you don’t ride like an idiot — it is safer than you might think.
What do you like about biking in Toronto?
The freedom that it affords you to access all our city has to offer.
And dislike?
Probably the lack of cycling infrastructure. I wouldn’t say bike lanes per se, but bike-friendly streets and proper locking posts and facilities. Get rid of the lollipops. Have you seen what is happening in Parkdale — those posts are fucking brilliant — there are multiple lock up points per post. Why is it that psychiatric survivors and an artist can come up better locking posts than City Hall?
What’s your favourite cycling street in Toronto?
Harbord.
What’s your favourite piece of cycling kit/clothing/gadget?
Disc brakes and the Crank Brother’s multi-tool.
Are you a member of any cycling organizations/clubs?
Nope.
Favourite bike stories?
Riding in the Himalayas four times. Forty-five-K downhills…30 kilometre climbs…real chai…and the mountains.
Scary bike stories?
Too numerous to tell.
How could the City help you enjoy riding more?
Educate drivers that cyclists are another vehicle and not a piece of sports equipement, that we get a lane.
How did you start biking?
Turning around and seeing that my dad wasn’t holding the seat anymore and then falling.
What sort of bike do you ride?
Rocky mountain Vertex 70 and a Misfit single speed 29er.
Helmet or no helmet? Situational.
Bikelane or no bikelane? No bikelane with a caveat: allowed use of full lane.
Crossposted to I Bike TO
5 comments
“No bikelane with a caveat: allowed use of full lane.”
Oh, hell, yeah! I’m behind that, though I can’t see how it’d ever be enforced short of “unsafe passing” cameras monitoring all streets…
U-locks and bear spray!
Or… the cops doing their %$#^ing jobs.
Oh btw, I think there may be a serious problem with the cycling committee being drastically reforumulated with 2/3 less citizen/bike inputs and a bias towards doing even more in the burbs vs. the core; check biketoronto as one starting point. Deps on Thurs.
More in the ‘burbs makes sense for reasons fair and foul: more people need to be encouraged there, since many already ride in the core; it’s easier to put in a bike lane in a suburban ravine, than restrict a lane of core traffic.
Hey, I live in Little Italy, and don’t get why people chose the ‘burbs (having lived there half of my life), but those are the reasons.
CAR MONDAYS (a corollary to Bike Friday)
Ever imagine what would happen to the city if everyone who owned a car drove it on Mondays? The city would stop dead. It’s a good way to show the public and the political-class the not distant future. Think it would catch on? We’d get Mondays off!
Does anyone know how much the Rocky Mountain Vertext 70 retails for in Canada?????