One of Spacing’s main photo contributors is Sam Javanrouh of Daily Dose of Imagery (he’s responsible for three Spacing covers: Fall 2006, Fall 2008-Winter 2009, and Spring-Summer 2009). Earlier this week Sam posted a great short video of him riding his bike across King St East (from Corktown area) to the Yonge and Queen intersection. What caught my attention in this video (besides Sam’s talent of riding without his hands) is how it clearly shows the obstacles faced by cyclists riding in the core. Granted, the wide-angle lens dramatizes Sam’s experience. But on the flip side, it also shows just how quickly you can get around the denser parts of the city without being in a car (not that most Spacing readers don’t know this already).
PS: I’ve noticed that Vimeo, the site hosting the video, has been acting slow today. Just an FYI.
28 comments
Great video. DDOI is on regular rotation for me as well.
I think he’s crazygonuts for crossing that intersection hands free, but alas.
I’m also going to take the following at face-value instead of going on an anti-anti-car rant 😉
“…on the flip side, it also shows just how quickly you can get around the denser parts of the city without being in a car (not that most Spacing readers don’t know this already)”
What caught my attention is the fact that it’s a four and a half minute video of the downtown core and I only spotted two fellow cyclists.
Not quite sure why my previous comment disappeared (I have a guess but have some difficulties to convince myself Spacing would actually do it). But here is my point again: cycling hand-free in busy downtown streets is a very bad idea. Safety issues aside, it plays squarely into the hands of people who are trying to portrait cyclists as a group of reckless people seeking excitement of an extreme sport. Not exactly helpful for what I believe the cause should be: cycling as a viable mode of transportation for Torontonian from 8 to 85. I am really disappointed to see a Spacing regular contributor to carry out this kind of irresponsible stunt.
Besides, this is really unnecessary. How hard is it to mount the camera on the bike or the helmet?
Remind me why we need a congestion tax again? It looks like a ghost town.
I know why they would block ‘Yu’, having read your other comments.
Definitely the fastest way to get around the downtown core!
The Revolution Will Not Be Motorised
You will not be able to drive home, brother.
You will not be able to sit down, rev up and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on high octane,
Drive through for burgers in your boat,
Because the revolution will not be motorised.
The revolution will not be motorised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by GM
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Steve McQueen
Driving a Mustang down the Streets of San Fransico
Chased by Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker, Hooper
B. J. and the Bear, the Dukes of Hazard, the Fast or the Furious.
The revolution will not be motorised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
The likes of Hyundai, Honda, Fiat, Ford, Volkswagon
Subaru, Skoda, Lada, Chrysler, Toyota, or MG.
The revolution will not buy your ass sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the fit.
The revolution will make you become five pounds thinner
Because the revolution will not be motorised, Brother.
The revolution will not be motorised, will not be motorised,
will not be motorised, will not be motorised.
The revolution will be no Cannon-Ball Run;
The revolution, it will ride.
I notice that he’s riding in the door zone when passing most cars. Almost impossible to avoid on King without crossing street car tracks.
eeek
Explain to me how this cyclist was supposed to do anything to avoid an accident ?
Aside from turning corners and stopping, most of his ride was hands-free. If anything unexpected happened, was he just going to plow into him/her/it and get injured ? He was travelling quite quickly and time to react drops to seconds.
At one point, he passes a bus just before the demonstration. What if a pedestrian stepped out from in front of the bus – would he just plow into them ?
Should we even ask if he wears a helmet in case he does have an accident ?
My point – if you use the road, you should be responsible for your safety and others around you.
This means being ready. EVERYONE – pedestrians, cyclists, drivers – needs to do their part.
I’m not ranting about cyclists in general, because I’ve seen examples of bad road usage from drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. But this video demonstrates a poor example (and he’s not the only one).
This is not a good video to publicize as it portrays cyclists as deranged nut-jobs and distracts from legitimate safety issues (putting bike lanes between parked cars and curbs) with the hands-free, high-speed stunts.
How early in the morning is that? I am surprised by how little activity (car traffic, pedestrians, bikes etc.) there is on King.
Cool video, but I was also a little unimpressed by the predominance of hands-free time. I understand that this was probably to steady the camera — Yu: good luck mounting an SLR on a bike helmet! — but I have have several run-ins with hands-free (and ear-free, thanks headphones!) cyclists that might have ended with fewer bruises all around if they’d been less distracted and more in control of their vehicle.
I guess I’m neither here nor there on how he rode up the stretch of street that had very clearly been closed to traffic by police… but nearly he ended up riding through horse shit so I guess it all evens out. Was during the Tamil protests?
The point about speed still stands. I take the King car Eastbound to get home from work, and end up playing leap-frog with the same cyclists from York St. to around Jarvis, at which point they fly ahead and out of view for good.
Funny. Heaven forbid drivers talk on cellphones while driving, but cyclists can bomb around the city recklessly holding a camera and no hands on the controls?
It seemed like a relatively uncongested ride. Try doing that on Queen or Dundas at 5pm and it would not be quite so easy.
However, please next time stop at red lights and don’t run yellows. In absence of a bike lane, passing on the right in tight conditions is a bit of stupid thing to do as well (someone can debate the finer points of the legality if they feel like). Not really a good example.
How about a video teaching people how to do this safely?
No,it’s not funny. It’s deadly serious.
A driver (or pedestrian) using a cell phone is not using their concentration on driving (or walking).
You only need to do it once to realize that while you were talking, you probably were really not watching where you were going.
No one said that it’s best for drivers to use phones.
By the same token, it’s not okay for cyclists to ride hands-free.
BOTH are WRONG. IT’S WRONG FOR THE DRIVER AND IT’S WRONG FOR THE CYCLIST.
Drivers CAN be wrong and cyclists CAN be wrong. Neither are perfect, but as long as you can get to where you’re going and everyone is still safe by the time you get to your destination, then that is fine.
I’m surprised at the reaction since most of the time Sam w/o hands there were no cars around. He did one-hand riding when there were cars. You know, the same as we do when we drive a car. There was nothing too unsafe about this. He was clearly not looking thru the viewfinder and just steadying it with his hand(s).
To address Glen on why we need congestion charges: the air quality. Can’t go out on smog days because of my asthma.
But to address Larry: You’ll also have to acknowledge that dangers posed by a biker and a driver are much different. If Sam gets into an accident with a car while riding without his hands, he hurts himself and probably no one else. But if a driver hits someone while using a cell phone they can cause very serious damage to themselves but also more severely to others. Sam’s risk was endangering himself; a driver using a cell is endangering more than one person with a much worse risk of serious injury.
Yes, I’ll agree that both cyclists and drivers can be wrong, but having drivers preach to cyclists about using hand, stopping at yellow lights, or concentrating while riding is priceless. I hope no one commenting above has done anything while driving that would could distract the driver and put others at risk, such as:
switching the radio station, skipping a CD track, looked at an iPod, turned on the air conditioning, used a knee on the wheel while lighting a smoke, taken a photo out the window, wiped something off of their kids face, had a discussion/argument with someone in the car, looked behind you to talk to someone in the back seat, drank coffee or water, rummaged through a bag.
Just relax and both sides stop the righteousness and keep things in perspective.
Aside from Tonya’s good sense, this has got to be the lamest set of comments I’ve ever seen.
Sorry, I just mean all the ‘this is dangerous!’ comments…
Okay, this is my last comment on this story. You all can add as many comments as you want and have the last word.
Tonya, I appreciate your comments. Yes – when he was riding with one hand on the bike it is the same thing as driving with one hand.
And yes, if a driver loses control of the vehicle the results are horrible.
But take a look at Sam’s speed. If he hits a pedestrian, it’s not the same as that person being hit by a car. But that person will still be in a great deal of pain.
You know, I set out to make one point about it being unsafe to ride with no hands.
But every time some one (anyone !) makes that remark, they get hit back with “oh, drivers are worse” or “oh, a driver sneering at us, looking down his nose” or these are “lame comments”.
Is it possible for cyclists to concede that maybe, just maybe, sometimes they do things that are not right ?
Oh, by the way, I never did say that I was a driver. Funny how everyone just assumed that because I was trying to make a point about everyone being responsible, that I must be a driver and I must be trying to preach to cyclists.
Tonya,
yes, most of the time when he was hand-free there was no moving car in sight. But Heaven forbids a door of one of the cars parked 3m ahead of him open the door, or a jay-walker emerges from behind a car. There are a lot of things that can be hanlded easily when your hands are on the handles, but can turn into a serious accident when they are not. Granted, this time he arrived without incident, but by the same token, most dangerous drivers make their destination in one piece as well.
BTW, if you are talking about sides, I am on “this” side, I ride about 1 hour per day to and from work.
It’s not just the hands-free cycling. It’s the endorsement of hands-free cycling that’s implied by posting this video.
I seem to recall that CBC’s Marketplace apologized a while back after airing a segment in which the host was talking on a hand-held cell phone while driving. She didn’t break any laws, and she certainly didn’t hit anyone, but viewers felt it was inappropriate. It’s the same thing here.
Drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians all do careless things from time to time, usually without consequences. But when someone chooses to share a video of their trip through public streets, it’s fair game to point out such carelessness.
Matt L’s comment is now the pinnacle of this thread of self-righteous indignation. Seriously, a couple comments about the hands-free is fine — but you sound like a committee of the most anal grade 3 teachers who don’t know when they’ve made their point. Matt L suggests posting a video is an endorsement — I suspect that people can think for themselves just fine.
Tonya, My question was “Where is the congestion?”.
There is less traffic downtown than twenty years ago. Plus the cars that are there are much less polluting.
IPC, if the point’s been made then what’s yours ?
“Look, I’m so cool that I don’t even have to touch my bike.” You know what – go ahead – use your freedom to ride hands-free. Consequences are yours and yours alone. If you want to bust up your head or arm or leg, fine by me. Then you could go bragging about what a marvelous time you got a cast.
Some people do get the point. Others, like these big boys, just want to do their own thing. Hope they like the view from their hospital bed.
Sweet ride. Loved it!
One message to the cyclist. How old are you hon?
Wanna get older? Then ride that bike differently.
I’m a driver and a cyclist, and you have an angel
on your shoulder. Sure hope it stays with you.
Ahhhh!
Sam Javanrouh is 38.
Great video, Sam!