Cannot protect the homes on Pharmacy Avenue.

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Administrator

The bike lanes have been removed on Pharmacy to protect those who thought it was a safety hazard. What is Councillor Berardinetti going to do about another common problem on Pharmacy Avenue? More often than not errant cars hit houses on Pharmacy Avenue rather than other cars. Luckily the latest took place early on a weekend morning because it occurred at an intersection heavily used by young students walking to school on weekdays.

Wonder how many people want to live on Pharamacy Avenue when there is a risk of them being hit by a car while they are in their home? So far they have been lucky, no homeowners have been injured.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1074610–driver-flees-after-crashing-into-scarborough-home?bn=1

Odd drinking and driving combo

Posted on May 2, 2011 by From the Road

Saw the ad below and it struck me as having a very mixed message. Got stranger to me as I looked up the ‘True Patriot Love Foundation’. The Foundation supports the families of people who are serving in the military.

Is there a connection between driving drunk and military service? Or is heaving drinking in the military just stereotyping? I suspect on further reflection that they are not trying to draw any connection but rather just trying connect to a worthy cause.

Taking a pledge against drinking and driving is restricted to those 19 years and older. Are teens not in one of the higher risk groups of dying from drunk driving… if not in the highest?

Very odd.

Additional 2022hrs- After posting this I decided to do a little further research.

Continue reading →

No free parking from the pork barrel.

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Administrator

After all of the revelations about how G8/G20 Summit money was spent, or as the allegations go misspent, I was disappointed to see that noneÂ of the receiving cities created any free parking… er bike lanes. You would think at least one of them would have put a green spin on it and created some free parking… er bike lanes. Oh well. Our American friends though must be resting easier that money earmarked for border security ended up sprucing up a couple of main streets of a few hick towns up north.

If it turns out that our tax money was used illegally I know a great place on Eastern Avenue to incarcerate the culprits. It would give them a great first hand look at how the money was spent in Toronto.

Cycling. The butt of TV ad jokes.

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Administrator

Have you ever seen a mainstream advertisement used on television that portrays cycling in a positive light? While these new ads are maybe not so negative as they are bizarre.

Who has to stop?

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Administrator

These signs can be found on the Exhibition grounds. I guess there are a lot of problems there with cyclists using the grounds as an unofficial training ground. The roads there make a great crit course. In the summer you can find hoards of cyclists race training on the roads inside the CNE grounds. The first time I noticed the sign was right after a car blew through the sign… and yes I have seen many cyclists in full sprint blow the stop signs too.

The sign has a confusing message. Does this mean cyclists do not have to stop at stop signs if they do not have this additional warning?

Space Cadet Camp

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Administrator

These space cadets are trying to flatten a bike using a forklift. They appear to be using the weight of their space capsule to flatten the bike. Could also be their outhouse. Let us hope they are not allowed to drive a car.

Dear Brian, I am not Adrian Heaps

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Administrator

Well I got a few interesting, to say the least, comments about my blogs on the Ward 35 council race between Adrian Heaps and Michelle Berardinetti. The anti-bike lane commenters tended to lack facts and… well let us leave it at that. I have copied one of the comments and reposted it with my responses. I have bolded my responses to Brian who commented about, “Ward 37 should be afraid of Michelle Berardinetti.”

Brian wrote;

Thank goodness Mr. Heaps you are gone. You dont live in my ward so why run in my ward.

A little fact checking Brian is in order here. I am not Adrian Heaps and I am certainly no fan of his. As opposed to Mr. Heaps I do live in the ward.

You said in the debate that there is no evidence of shelter people coming stealing from nearby homes. You are 100% wrong. You dont live in my ward. You dont talk to my neighbours. That is because you dont want a shelter in your own area. There was one incident where 2 shelter people went to a home and asked if they could use the phone to call a probation officer; they both entered, while the other was talking to my neighbour the other was stealing.

If two strangers came to my door and asked to use my phone to call their probation officer I would likely politely say no. If I was feeling charitable I would consider asking them to wait outside at the door, which would be locked, and then bring them the phone to use outside. I certainly would not let two strangers in to use the phone, regardless of whether they were calling their probation officer or their mommy. Your neighbour was simply not very bright. What do bike lanes have to do with shelters anyways?

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Replace bike helmet with an airbag?

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Administrator

While this looks like a joke it seems that it is for real. Rather cool for that matter. Seems it would be good for pedestrians walking Toronto streets.

Heaps’ campaign signs vandalized!

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Administrator

Last week the Toronto Sun reported that Michelle Berardinetti, candidate for Toronto council Ward 35 Toronto, called police because someone allegedly looking like incumbent councillor Adrian Heaps was seen by a resident destroying her signs. The resident saw the person dumping Berardinetti signs in his bushes. She first reported it to the police and then the Toronto Sun. This story came out two days after Rob Ford got some headlines because some loser created some low blow signs about the wanna be mayor.

Today when I got home I found someone had used my bush to get rid of some of Councillor Heaps’ signs. Photo above is of one of them. I immediately phoned the police. Some nine and a half hours later they showed up with sirens blaring. Came to a screeching halt right in front of my house, actually skidding right over one of the vandalized signs completely destroying it in the process. They apologized profusely for their delayed response time. They took 11 seconds longer than what is mandated by the province to respond to my “Priority One” call because of traffic on Pharmacy Avenue… “bloody bike lanes” added the cop in charge. They broke out their fingerprint kit, dusted the signs and a few leaves. Followed by a thorough search of the property. Before they canvassed the neighbourhood for witnesses one of them said he had to go pee. I said, “no problem”. As in, “no problem you can go inside and use the toilet”, not use the bush in question as an urinal. It was too late, he had already started to water my bush.

Turns out that there were no witnesses nor any usable fingerprints. I demanded that they charge someone for this outrage. They went back to their now overheating cruiser and spoke to a higher power. They called me over to the cruiser so I could hear their police radio for a message from the humourless Sgt.Fife at division. “Sorry sir. We cannot charge our only remaining suspect, mother nature, for this. She has never shown up for any tickets I have given her. My officers have to leave now”. He continued, “could you please give my two officers directions to Warden and Eglinton. Joe Pantalone is throwing a temper tantrum about how much space a candidate is taking on his corner”.

I asked the two officers if they were going to replace the sign they destroyed. I was left standing in a cloud of burnt rubber. Maybe Heaps will come and clean up the mess?

E-Biker: Drunk or wind troubles?

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Administrator

I rode an E-Bike several years ago for a few hundred feet. Could not get much of a feel for it nor any idea of how it handled. While I do not like them I realize that they will soon make up a good number of vehicles on the road. Would I get one? I dunno. I still cannot get over the fact that they look like mopeds that were prematurely aborted. Besides, my mass hunched over one of those things would only bring me ridicule.

Maybe somebody out there can speak to their handling capabilities. Today I was behind a young woman, maybe 16-17 who probably weighed about 50-55kgs riding an E-Bike. We had a pretty significant headwind. Between intersections she would take the lane. As she got close to an intersection she would move over to the curb. That was not strange but her track was really squirrel-ly. So much so that she almost got sideswiped a few times by cars that left her ample room. As I rode behind her I began to think she was drunk. She would respond to the near sideswipes about a minute after they happened, by then the car was already gone. As I followed behind I thought she would for sure get nailed in the block eastbound on Danforth before Main. She handled it like a pro.

Left wondering if maybe E-Bikes handle really poorly? …maybe that would explain why so many of them appear to ride like jerks? I built a time trial bike over 20 years ago. The wheelbase was so short that it was super sensitive to the slightest correction. Took awhile to get used to. Maybe it was the wind causing her to veer so much. I was able to keep up with her. I would be surprised if I was going any faster than 20kmh into that wind. Maybe she was just drunk.

TorontoCranks

Celebrating Critical Mass and Cycling in Toronto Est. 2001

Category Archives: Bizarre