Monday’s headlines

5 comments

1. Green initiatives? The city is still providing permits to film productions to use bike lanes to park production support vehicles. This is unnecessary. Putting the safety of bicyclists behind the convenience of production crews is a travesty. These motor vehicles can find proper parking usually not much further from the sets than the ever convenient bike lanes. Gaffers have to hump the gear in and out anyway. Adding a few hundred feet to that carry seems trivial but obligatory considering the potential results of yet another bicyclist/motor vehiclist altercation.
   On the same note tolerating motor vehiclists using sidewalk space for parking or worse, motor vehicle promotion as was the case Friday evening on the northside sidewalk of Queen west of Soho shouldn’t be tolerated especially in a city which lauds itself for its green goals. Putting the safety and comfort of pedestrians behind the convenience and profit of motorists and motor vehicle marketers makes no sense despite the dollars some evidently benefit from this activity.

2. Geoffrey, I’m not saying you don’t have some valid points, but “adding a few hundred feet” to what film crews have to hump is not as trivial as you make it sound. It probably means the difference between filming and not filming in TO. Yes, it is inconvenient but I don’t agree that it’s the life-threatening situation you claim it is. When it comes to the film industry, we are all second fiddle — whether that’s right or not is probably another discussion.

3. samg:

   http://sockpuppet.ca/xray

   ^That is not trivial. Over a year of recovery is not trivial. Lost income due to the actions of an “inconvenienced” and unknown motorist is not trivial. The debt I incurred as a result of their indiscretion is not trivial. By comparison humping gear a few feet more IS trivial.
   If the film industry can not see fit to accept the opportunity costs of their trade the city should reconsider its policy of providing permits to those who put the safety of others in jeopardy.

4. geffrey,
   I never said injury (and death) was trivial… but the accidents you point to might happen regardless of whether a bike lane is clear or not. My own thoughts is that accidents with cyclists would be much less likely to happen if everyone SLOWED DOWN on routes frequented by cyclists. Speed limits are way too high in some areas — and when motorists are travelling at very fast speeds, that is a peril to cyclists, regardless of whether their is a clear bike lane or not. And yes, compared to injury (though I’m not sure the comparison is justified), humping gear is trivial — but trivial as we may find it, it probably would determine whether the production is filmed in Toronto or not.

5. Film crews blocking bike lanes does happen but is hardly the menace that drivers parked or (as usual on Davenport) driving in the bike lane is.