Bixi Bikes comes to Toronto

BIXI Toronto launched May 3rd with 1000 bikes in over 80 locations. They can currently only be found within the downtown core (from Bathurst east to Jarvis and Queens Quay north to Bloor) but Bixi is hoping to expand. If you live and/or work in the downtown area Bixi might be for you, especially when it’s only $95/year for a well tuned bike whenever you need it. If you’re only in Toronto visiting BIXI has both day rates ($5/day) and 3-day rates ($12). I was hoping to use BIXI when I go to one of my favourite restaurants this week, Pizza Libretto. But there are no BIXI stations near by and it could be up to an extra $12+ if I don’t return the bike within 90 mins!

Toronto Bike lanes

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford recently announced that he is removing the bike lanes on Jarvis Street. Traffic engineers at the city of Toronto claim that commuters are faced with much longer commuting times and only 600 cyclists are using the Jarvis Street Bike lanes. This may have been more digestible to city cyclists if Ford had offered up some alternative. There is a cycling culture in downtown Toronto and Ford could have proactively offered up another street for bike lanes. Cyclists could instead be offered north routes on one-way Bleecker Street and southbound access on another adjacent route to Jarvis.

For an urban, supposedly active city Toronto’s bike lanes are disconnected, random and usually dangerous to say the least. Biking Toronto has a great website where cyclists can interact and they offer up a map of the existing bike lanes. I try and ride my bike in the city, but it’s usually not on bike lanes (mostly because there aren’t many in the area I live in). Driver behaviours vary day to day; you never know when someone is going to try and cut it close. My suggestions for safe city riding:

1. Wear a helmet (duh!)
2. Ride about 0.5 to a full meter from the curb or parked cars. As a cyclist you have the right to be in the right hand lane (as a slower moving vehicle). If you leave yourself some ‘wiggle’ room by the curb you can save yourself from falling over. It also indicates to drivers to move almost over into the left hand lane to get around you.
3. Do NOT ride on the sidewalk (it’s for pedestrians)
4. Wear bright colours. The more visible you are, the more likely other cars and cyclists will see you.
5. Carry ID, a mobile phone and have money for a cab.

The Sidewalks are for Pedestrians

Suggestion #3 is to not ride on the sidewalk. One it is illegal. And two it frightens pedestrians.

One of my favourite ways to stay active and healthy is to run track workouts down at Varsity Stadium with the University of Toronto. For my warm-up and cool-down I usually go and adventure through Queens Park and campus, seeing old buildings I used to attend classes in and getting my legs ready for something blisteringly fast (well fast for old lady legs!). Recently my fear factor has gone up significantly; there are so many cyclists jumping on and off sidewalks or just steadily riding on sidewalks. I am very afraid that one of them is going to plow into me one day. While it wouldn’t be as devastating as being hit by a car, I think the damage could still be quite significant.

Cycling friends please leave the sidewalks to those of walking and running.

With summer here I’m going to try and get in as much time on my bike as possible. I may even start waking up and ridiculously early hours just to get in a long road ride before I go to work. My goal is try and ride my bike to work once my competitive track season is over, but we’ll see given how dangerous it may be.

Enjoy your summer.  Why not enjoy your summer on your bike?

Yesterday a friend of mine at work ran a session on how the built environment influences our physical activity regimes, based on a Transportation Research Board Report from 2005. The premise of his presentation is that the world is becoming less active, obesity rates are on the rise, we are dependent on the car, more of us live in suburbs and overall we are less healthy and less happy.

In the US there is a program called Healthy People 2010, which promotes physical activity and lowering obesity rates. From the site I navigated my way over to their Quick Guide to Healthy Living, which provides expert advice on nutrition & fitness as well as several other programs to help you live an active and healthy life.

In Canada we have the Health Goals whose overarching goal “As a nation, we aspire to a Canada in which every person is as healthy as they can be – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.” Our Health Canada site seemed to have similar information on how to lead a healthy life.

The presenter is one who believes in active transportation, eating well and living life in a sustainable manner. He promotes cycling to work and being active with colleagues through the day. And he states that while vigourous activity may not be for everyone being a healthy person doesn’t require much effort. Under Healthy People 2010 the following constitutes healthy living:

30 minutes of light activity 5 times per week

Or

20 minutes of vigorous activity 3 times per week

Even better, you can divide those 30 minutes of light activity into 10 minute chunks. Take a break and walk for 10 minutes at work; you’ll probably be more productive for it. Park further away and force yourself to walk that extra distance to and from the office. Walk to lunch. Walk 5 flights of stairs before you get on the elevator. Simple things you can do to squeeze in some extra activity.

Work hours are longer. Driving times are increased as we drive from suburb to work and back again. No longer is the grocery store, drug store or restaurants within walking distance. Our time competes between exercise and the computer, internet and video games.

There are many programs in place to create healthy cities. Toronto has changed its mandate and now has pedestrians and cyclists at the top of it’s design hierarchy instead of cars and trucks. Under the Healthy Schools Program Ontario elementary school teachers are required to provide 20 minutes of vigorous activity to students each day.  And while our lives become busier and efficiency becomes necessity having the infrastructure in place to make our lives more active will promote a healthier society.

Like many of the surrounding suburbs of Toronto, Burlington has larger homes on bigger properties and streets that seem to go no where. In addition to that parents of the Burlington area were worried about student safety (and who wouldn’t these days with two pedestrian deaths in the Toronto area yesterday). Each day more kids get a drive to school than walk.

The program in Burlington encourages teachers and student volunteers to ‘pick up’ students much like a bus would, but instead of a bus they all walk together. It is active transportation at its best. Plus it means more time for students to socialize with their friends.

There are so many benefits to students walking to school:

• It stimulates their bodies making them more alert and attentive at school
• It stimulates their metabolism; increasing their metabolic rates and food processing abilities
• It gets the ‘social bug’ out – instead of socializing in the classroom students socialize on the way to school
• It encourages life long lessons in exercise

Ontario is encouraging students to walk to school, as both a green community initiative and as an active transportation initiative. There are no 40 communities participating in the Active and Safe Routes to School Program, all the way from Windsor to Ottawa and up and over to Kenora.

How did your kids get to school today? Change up your routines and encourage your children to be more active.

This back to school stuff got me thinking about simple ‘greening’ initiatives parents and students can do. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. Walk or Ride to School: Most Toronto students attend public schools that are walking or riding distance. Instead of turning on the car, walk or ride with your child to school. Not only is this a ‘green’ thing but it also falls under the Ontario mandate to increase active transportation.
2. Pack a Litterless Lunch: most of the students are learning about preserving our environment. It is no longer a ‘faux paux’ to bring your lunch in reusable containers. Plus I think they come with some funky characters these days.
3. Refillable Water Bottles: Juice is great, but too much juice is no good. It’s filled with sugar, which means a lot of extra calories. I won’t even go near soft drinks, regular or diet/light. Again like those cool looking containers water bottles also come with a wide variety of designs. McDonald’s is even promoting their Olympic ones right now. Encourage your kids to drink water
4. Extra-curricular activities: I preferred these to school any day and they may have been the reason I went to school. From visual and dramatic arts, to sports, to academic, including student council encourage your children to get involved both inside and outside their school.
5. Limit TV watching: when I was smaller I was limited to 30 minutes of TV per night. And most nights I didn’t even need that 30 minutes, mind you I was an ‘outdoorsy’ kid – tobogganing, cycling, tag, hide and seek, etc.
6. Limit Computer Time: Computers seem to be as bad, maybe worse, than TV. We are drawn into them. Again limit the time your child has with the computer and encourage them to do something more stimulating.
7. Encourage Part-time jobs: Yes, this is limited to older children. I worked in retail when I was in high school and it taught me a lot about what I wanted to do and also introduced me to a broad spectrum of people I may not have otherwise met. Plus as a shop-a-holic at times the discounts were fantastic! I also encourage teaching a sport/activity (i.e. swimming, skiing, tennis, baseball – the rewards from teaching children are … indescribable)
8. Have your children help with dinner: simple activities like tearing lettuce for a salad or setting the table encourages good eating habits and family time.
9. Daily Cardiovascular Activity: CBC has a very interesting documentary, Brain Gains, on the benefits of 20 minutes of daily cardio every day. It is based on the book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. The results – academically the students scored higher after doing 20 minutes of cardio vascular exercise each day.
10. Lots of hugs: They don’t output any carbon and they teach us the importance of dependence and interdependence.

When I arrived at his office I texted him to say I had arrived, walked into the lobby of his building, bike in tow, and was waiting for the elevator. And then it happened. This overweight, googlie-eyed man started yelling at me ‘This is private property. What do you think you’re doing? There are no bikes in here! Get out. This is for private residents.’

I couldn’t be one of those residents? I didn’t have anything on that would suggest I was protesting something. I had no posters, stickers or any other paraphernalia I was going to post somewhere. I was standing there in my plain MEC bike shorts, solid coloured bike shirt with my backpack and helmet on.

Whoa! I couldn’t believe that with all the ‘green’ movements in Toronto I couldn’t bring my bike in. I did say to him ‘Ok. I’ll be sure to check the Toronto laws.’ At which point a yelling match ensued. He also then used his stature to intimidate me – all 165cm and 51kg (5’6″ & 115lbs) was no match as he came storming towards me.

Here’s the part that really got me. I was being thrown out of the building for having my bicycle with me, actually thrown off their ‘private’ sidewalk too (yes the city owns the first 3m of your property, if not past that to water main), when people can bring their pets to work. I think that was what made me so angry.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not anti-pets (I have two siamese cats, a husky-lab dog, help out with my brother leopard gecko, etc). But it did get me thinking.

Unlike a pet my bike will not pee on you or the floor. Same for #2. My bike won’t jump up on your lap, your desk or anything else. My bike will not scratch the walls (I might scratch the walls but cyclists are usually aware and careful). My bike will not give you fleas. My bike will not make your allergies attack you. And most people don’t see a bike and run with fear (yes my white bike with pink trim is quite menacing, especially with my light blue helmet).

What should we do for the ‘green’ future?

It really got me thinking. As we become more environmentally friendly do we really need to create bi-laws that permit us to bring our eco-friendly transport with us? Or can building managers just adapt? More research is needed on this but I wanted to post my frustrations.

Not everyone needs to be an envorinmentalist or environmentally conscious, but we all need to be accepting of each others choices. Maybe what also angered me yesterday was the complete lack of tolerance for someone who cared about the environment, for someone who carpooled.

It felt like it happened in slow motion and with in microseconds of me hitting the ground a woman, who happened to be enjoying a pint at the Lakeview Tavern, was at my side picking me and my bike up. Shortly afterwards I was sitting at a table, glass of water in hand trying to shake my fall off.

The Karma Circle

The woman, who I’m calling my urban angel, recounted the story of the first time she fell off her bike because she had fallen into a streetcar track. Someone else, her urban angel, was there to help her up, get her bike and calm her down. It’s a karma circle – she had passed on the good karma of the person that had helped her.

As I waited to be picked up I could help but think there was a group of these urban angels that helped cyclists everyday. I certainly was the only victim to fall prey to those streetcar tracks. I wonder how many other urban angels there were yesterday? And already today?

I don’t think I’ll give up riding in the city anytime soon; I really enjoy starting my day with my ride into work. But I will definitely be on the lookout for those streetcar tracks and a little more cautious when entering an intersection that has them. I will, whenever I see any cyclist, pedestrian, inline skater, etc fall down, be there to pass on the good karma, because I never know when I’ll need it again.

That is the slogan for the 2009 Pollution Probe Clean Air Commute Week; contribute nothing to pollution. It is an attempt to get individuals to re-think how they travel to work everyday. Instead of driving, carpool, drive a hybrid, bike, walk, take transit or telecommute.

I started my week off by riding my bike to work. Tomorrow I think will be a transit day. And then hopefully alternate bike-transit until the end of the week (I play ultimate Frisbee on Tuesday and Thursday and it’s never safe to bike to the fields).

Smog is all around us

Why is Pollution Probe asking us all to change our commuting habits? Because of the increased levels of smog. Smog originally known as a mix of smoke and fog, it is now more commonly known as a noxious mixture of air pollutants, including vapours, gases and particles that can often be seen as a yellowish-brown haze in the air.

Some quick facts about Pollution Probes Clean Air Commute Week:

• Began in 1993
• Registered over 650 GTA workplaces
• Saved over 4,000 tonnes of air pollutants from going into the air (NOx, SOx, VOCs, CO, CO2) (since 2000 when reporting of pollutants was introduced to the event)
• Over 80,000 diary cards returned by participating employees.
• On average, between 70-80% of the individuals who switched from driving alone to a cleaner mode of transportation during the event said they intend to continue on a permanent basis (based on surveying done since reporting began in 2001). Over the past 16 years, the event has succeeded in switching thousands of people to public transit, carpooling, biking, walking and telecommuting.

With an estimated 500,000 cars travelling on the 401 everyday programs like this are needed to remind us that every little bit makes a difference

Thanks to my bf I was directed to the ‘ultimate’ TTC Map on torontoist.com. Dreamed up by Dieter Janssen, an architecture professor at the University of Toronto this map adds new lines, extends existing ones and tries to capture the GTA audience.

Below vs. Above Ground

Streetcar or Subway? Economically it just doesn’t make sense to build more subways. From what I’ve heard every subway kilometre costs $200million and every streetcar kilometre $70million. But with the harsh climate and rolling ravines in Toronto I don’t know that complete surface transit is the answer.

Fare Hikes to Fund New Transit

Either solution where are the funds going to come from to build on this infrastructure? With budgets stretched thin already and existing infrastructure already failing one suggestion has been to increase fares. Before the fare hikes come in, we need to have a zone system in place and a ‘pay-as-go’ card.

Paul Kashimoto made an interesting remark – why not follow the Hong Kong example and earn revenues from managing properties in the vicinity of the transit stations? From Design-Build to Design-Build-Operate.

Although Jansenn’s dream might seem far-fetched it is necessary to have a healthy, sustainable city. For too long Toronto has let its infrastructure be stagnant and we’re paying the price today.

Is it possible to ride through a city safely?

Thanks to green LA girl for pointing me to this article at bicyclesafety.com. The Article How Not To Get Hit By Cars suggests some great tips for staying safe while riding in the city. The site shows you the top ways of getting hit by cars and how to avoid these situations.

I have committed myself to riding to work as much as possible. I’ve had to adjust my route (it is now about 10mins longer) in order to avoid busy city streets adjacent to the highways.

In Toronto the bi-laws state that it is illegal to ride on the sidewalk, but sometimes it is the safest thing to do. Frequent Toronto cyclists have fairly good judgment and know where the sidewalks are very congested with pedestrians, but in those areas where the pedestrians are infrequent, sometimes it is just safer to ride on the sidewalk.

My few tips for city riding:

• Use judgement: road vs. sidewalk, city-street vs. residential road, etc
• Wear a Helmet: and gloves aren’t a bad option too, road rash on your hands is always super painful
• Wear Bright Clothes: cycling isn’t a fashion statement, make sure you are visible to cars
• Always let the Car have the right-of-way: even if you it is your turn and your right-of-way, the car’s size will over-power you and win.

Here’s what happened: The bus driver pulled into the right hand lane approaching the Eglinton intersection. I went through the intersection behind other vehicles in the left-hand thru-lane to continue going north on Royal York. Just north of the intersection is a bus stop where the bus was proceeding to. No one wanted to get on or off the bus so the bus never slowed down or stopped. Instead of merging when it was safe the bus pulled over into the left lane without checking to see if there were any vehicles. But there were, I was there and have to slam on my brakes and veer into the right lane. Who needs caffeine when you have drivers like that!

Ontario Highway Traffic Act 142.1

I decided I would look up the law governing buses merging back into traffic, HTA 142.1. The requirement on yielding applies to buses merging back from the bus bay. The law states:

Every driver of a vehicle in the lane of traffic adjacent to a bus bay shall yield the right of way to the driver of a bus who has indicated his or her intention, as prescribed, to re-enter that lane from the bus bay.

But the law also states when the bus must wait:

No driver of a bus shall re-enter the lane of traffic adjacent to a bus bay and move into the path of a vehicle or street car if the vehicle or street car is so close that it is impractical for the driver to yield the right of way.

Buses are governed by the same driving laws as the rest of us.

My issue this morning was that the bus merged into my lane without checking to see if it was safe to merge. The bus is governed by the same laws as the rest of us, it must only merge when it is safe. I was lucky in that no one was coming in the south direction and narrowly avoided being hit by the bus.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to have a close call with a bus. I suppose it is about driver education, both vehicle and bus, and possibly about changing the Highway Traffic Act.