From the original MyBikeLane New York:
By my reckoning, MyBikeLane is 1 year old today! Congratulations to the innovator of this pioneering open-source people’s law enforcement site.
But look at us! Toronto’s MyBikeLane is number two after NY with 370 posts and 40 members. Unfortunately, we do have lots of opportunities for photos here in the T-dot, especially on Bay and College streets. Here is a pic added by Vic of one sadly typical infraction on College street.
I have been having some harrowing experiences on College lately myself. So, one night last week I decided to print off this flyer (below) that originally appeared here in a Torontoist post by Marc Lostracco. As I smiled and handed the flyer to people through their car windows, most of them unwittingly smiled and said “thank you.” I’m not sure what else to do. My daily “motorist information sessions” (which some casual observers *might* call “yelling matches”) don’t seem to be helping either. I’m trying to stay calm, but I believe it is a natural instinct to defend oneself when one’s life is threatened.
On June 24, Toronto Police Services issued the results of their one-week “Safe Cycling” campaign. They had issued a total of 49 tickets for parking in the bike lane. The fine is 30 dollars for parking in a “no parking” zone and 60 for a “no stopping” zone. Not much of a deterrent — especially when it is normally not enforced.
Recently, a 16-year-old girl wrote of her own disturbing experiences simply trying to commute by bicycle to her summer job. Not surprisingly, this invoked a furor of letters in response.
In turn, there has been a lively discourse here on Spacing, regarding the very real dangers of cycling in our city. I’d like to wish a speedy recovery to Geoffrey. I’m especially shocked to hear that the police did not file an accident report. It’s bad enough they don’t enforce the no-stopping law, but to blatantly disregard a life-threatening assault like this? This is a shame.
Crossposted to I Bike TO
3 comments
Back in 2000, before “community sites”, I was doing this in Glasgow. There’s some of it still on archive.org.
Then there was the original getoutofthebikelane.com
by Darren Stehr … (now defunct)
Motorist information sessions are helpful, but what does it take to penetrate the car-cooned consciousness such as it is – or isn’t. There’s a great amount of collective denial with cars and their impacts – and I’m not sure the facts work, because we’ve known for years…
As for blocked bike lanes – I alternate between being Buddhist about it, and bootist…
And our cops aren’t great with cyclists’ rights eh?
Most of them drive in from out of town.