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In my last video I showed an impatient truck which almost resulted in a painful right hook. This video is from the same bridge, very similar situation. This time the driver is much more professional. He was willing to wait a couple of seconds. PS – I am glad I do not have a mirror on my bike. Tour de France fans from the ’80s and early ’90s will remember Laurent Fignon. He reportedly died today of cancer. He was called the “Professor” not only for his studious glasses but also for his above average intellect. From reading some of the obits it seems that latter is true when comparing him to other pro cyclists of his era. I was never really a fan of his but did enjoy how he could get Greg Lemond worked up both on and off the road.
August ’10 Toronto CM from Darren Stehr on Vimeo. As per my previous post, I did not ride CM. I just had to be content with watching it leave. Though I did catch a great performance by CYCLOPS. I am going to miss September’s here in Toronto too. Say that with a bit of hope that I might be able to catch it in the city I am visiting. Anyone care to write a short report on how the ride went? I was really looking forward to CM after a really rough week. Apparently the Tire God is not with me. Quite the bulge in the tire. Taking a break near the start point of CM wondering if my tire will make it through the ride or if I am just asking for trouble. If I had any motivation left in me after this hell week I would get over to Angry Bicycle Store owner and beg him to do a quick fix on it. Wonder if duct tape would help? Not that I have any on me… what time do they let bicycles on the subway? No interest in having a blow out in traffic. I babble.
Every few months residents of Ward 35 receive a newsletter from their ward councillor Adrian Heaps. Of course we all know that he is also chair of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee (TCAC). I am not sure if the newsletter is taxpayer funded or not but it does have the City’s logo at the top of the front page. This issue is all about the great things Heaps’ has done for Ward 35. It contains a two page map that lists, “What we have accomplished over the last four years…” It goes on to list over 100 accomplishments. Some of the accomplishments are the planned renovations to Regents Park (#17), Oates Park Movie Nights(#36), participating in McHappy Day (#100), the opening of the TD Bank (#101), the installation of a few traffic lights (#78,79,98,99) and of course the opening of Lowe’s in the old Wal Mart building (#105). I could not find one mention of anything cycling related nor the bike lanes that were installed on Pharmacy Avenue on any of the four pages. Heaps has mentioned his involvement in TCAC a couple of issues ago. No mention of the Birchmount bike lanes either. There is some spinning in the newsletter. Item #77 touts the, “Improved traffic flow on Pharmacy”. Very curious. I guess Heaps is afraid of what mentioning a bike lane would do to his campaign. Or maybe he just pulled a Ford and forgot. He is just human after all. Another curiosity is item #74, “Save the Pharmacy Bus Service”. Very curious seeing that residents were complaining that Heaps was absent when they sought help on the issue. This driver was in such a rush to get to a red light that he was willing to cut me down to do it. The camera is mounted on the fork just above the hub. So there is about 20cm more of me to the left of the camera. It was lucky that I made it to the pavement because if I had tried a sudden movement on the bridge my wheel would have slipped sideways on the wet bridge. I spoke to the driver. He told me that he had more than enough room “behind me”. Not quite sure what he meant. Said that if I did not like it that I should use the bike lanes. He pointed to the westbound Martin Goodman Trail. I did not argue the point with him that I needed to go east. The truck obviously belongs to Ryder Truck. Though it appears to be from their rental fleet so it is probably not one of their employees driving. WARNING!: Content is graphic and EXTREMELY disturbing.
Up the road from my house, ironically at the north end of the Pharmacy Avenue bike lanes, a classic car show is held every Wednesday. Most of the cars there are from a time when people traveled much slower and driving was almost social. There too was much more craft put into building a car. So much so that if they never modernized there would probably be many fewer cars on the road today. I doubt if very many of these cars could be built today by robots. |
Celebrating Friends 
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I was sent these photos. The info attached claimed that they were taken in eastern Canada. Think they are trying to make fun of Newfies. Apparently the folks out east think potholes are a great method of controlling speeding cars. I have my doubts as to the location, looks like palm trees in the background. I also doubt there are any three lane roads out east with a bike lane beside it. Anyways, it is a very interesting idea. Check out the rest of the photos. Maybe there is something to this.
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