{"id":2957,"date":"2008-04-04T09:07:51","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T14:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2008\/04\/04\/pedal-car-not-guilty\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:19:35","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:19:35","slug":"pedal-car-not-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/04\/pedal-car-not-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedal-car Not Guilty!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"car.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A judge ruled yesterday that pedal-powered cars are safe to be driven down the streets of <\/st1>Toronto<\/st1>.
\n<\/o>\n<\/p>\n

A case redolent with irony and absurdity saw the driver of a 1986 Buick Regal taken to court for allegedly operating an unsafe car. But, this is no ordinary jalopy. Michel de Broin’s art piece \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shared Propulsion Car<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is essentially the shell of a onetime gas powered vehicle, except that its motor and upholstered seats have been replaced with plastic bucket seats, four sets of pedals and a levered hand-brake system. <\/span>On October 25, 2007, while on its first leisurely roll down <\/st1>Queen St. West<\/st1> the pedal-powered car was pulled over by a Toronto Police Officer, tagged as an unsafe vehicle and towed off the street (see this Spacing<\/em> post<\/a> and the many comments, and watch the video here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/o>Yesterday’s hearing saw the art project fight for the privilege to drive, albeit slowly — the vehicle cannot go faster than 15 km\/hr — through Toronto Streets.<\/p>\n

<\/o>The prosecution argued that the Shared Propulsion Car was an unsafe vehicle due to its flawed braking system that requires both the driver and passenger to pull on levers to successfully stop the car. <\/span>There was also the issue with the potentially combustible headlights: the exposed and lit candles that served as headlights could spark a fire if the vehicle got into a collision.<\/p>\n

<\/o>The defence responded that the gutted Buick Regal is just as, if not less, dangerous than bicycles, rickshaws or horse-drawn buggies. <\/span>The braking system, although flawed, does in fact exist and work — didn’t the car successfully pull over and stop at the police officer’s bidding? — the same cannot be said of a rickshaw.<\/p>\n

This was then followed by a line of questioning by the defence that saw the car compared to a variety of slow-moving street vehicles that are also propelled by human or animal power, and\/or don’t have brakes but are rarely if ever pulled over by cops and charged as unsafe vehicles. At this point, the defence made a special point of asking the police officer if he had ever stopped a rickshaw or a horse and buggy. To which the officer sheepishly replied that he had never seen a horse-drawn carriage in <\/st1>Toronto<\/st1>.<\/p>\n

<\/o>After a short moments pause the judge came to a decision. He began by stating that the vehicle in question \u00e2\u20ac\u0153looks like a Buick Regal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but is in fact a Buick turned into a bicycle. The braking system in his estimation was able to stop the car. <\/span>As to whether the candles posed the threat of combustion, he determined that since candles haven’t been a problem for the Amish, they certainly will not pose a problem in a gas-less car.<\/p>\n

And with that, the case was thrown out. The Shared Propulsion Car was deemed nothing more than a glorified bike with a roof.<\/p>\n

Photo by Benny Zenga<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A judge ruled yesterday that pedal-powered cars are safe to be driven down the streets of Toronto. A case redolent with irony and absurdity saw the driver of a 1986 Buick Regal taken to court for allegedly operating an unsafe car. But, this is no ordinary jalopy. Michel de Broin’s art piece \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shared Propulsion Car\u00e2\u20ac\u009dContinue reading “Pedal-car Not Guilty!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4049,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21757,4,9],"tags":[7388,8606,7395,427,8603,25,813,7390,1637,8602,8604,1636,316,2532,19,1643,8605],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-culture","category-traffic","tag-benny-zenga","tag-braking-system","tag-buick-regal","tag-driver","tag-gas-less-car","tag-intervention","tag-judge","tag-michel-de-broin","tag-officer","tag-onetime-gas","tag-pedal-powered-car","tag-police-officer","tag-queen","tag-st-west","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-police","tag-unsafe-car"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPedal-car Not Guilty! - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/04\/pedal-car-not-guilty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pedal-car Not Guilty! - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A judge ruled yesterday that pedal-powered cars are safe to be driven down the streets of Toronto. A case redolent with irony and absurdity saw the driver of a 1986 Buick Regal taken to court for allegedly operating an unsafe car. But, this is no ordinary jalopy. 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