Toronto Cycling

Just stumbled upon these bikes in Facebook Marketplace. Turns out there's a Toronto distributor selling them. Haven't looked into them too much but at a glance, they are a Brompton clone without the proprietary stuff. I see standard cassettes, derailleurs and shifters. Standard brakes, etc. And they're priced closer to what a bike like that should cost.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36058915

The City of Vaughan has formally dropped its use of automated speed enforcement cameras as Ontario’s premier urges municipalities that have them to end the “tax grab.”

Vaughan paused its use of speed cameras in June after 32,000 speeding tickets were handed out in just three weeks earlier this year. Del Duca put forward that motion to pause their use until September because council was due to receive a report on ways the city could create more effective signage about the presence of cameras.

Del Duca said in a statement Monday Vaughan needs to “strike the right balance” between protecting citizens and ensuring there is no “unfair financial burden placed on residents at a time of financial uncertainty.”

He added it that with the speed cameras, it was “clear the balance tips too heavily” toward financial penalties.

Ford said Tuesday he was “proud” of Vaughan’s decision.

“It’s nothing but a tax grab. I’m proud of Mayor Del Duca and I’ll be making an announcement with Mayor Del Duca,” he said, without providing specifics on the announcement.

“There’s so many ways to reduce and slow down traffic (other than) gouging people when they go three kilometres over the speed limit. It’s unfortunate some mayors decided to go down that avenue, but we’ll work with the mayors.”

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario has told Ford in a letter there is real evidence the cameras improve road safety, including a July study from SickKids and Toronto Metropolitan University that found they reduced speeding by 45 per cent in Toronto.

“The evidence shows that if (automated speed enforcement) cameras are removed, speeds will increase in community safety zones and more pedestrians will be at risk,” association president Robin Jones wrote in the letter.

“Instead, we strongly recommend that you work with municipalities to ensure we have the tools we need to ensure road safety.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35871824

Mayor Patrick Brown said he’s talked with the premier. Brampton has 185 photo radar cameras deployed.

The City of Brampton has spent millions of dollars going all-in on automated speed enforcement (ASE) technology and now Premier Doug Ford says his government might ban it.

On Tuesday (Sep. 9), Ford told reporters that he wants municipalities to voluntarily remove their ASE cameras — otherwise known as photo radar — or the province might ban them.

“It’s just a tax grab. They should take out those cameras — all of them,” Ford said. “Hopefully, the cities will get rid of them … or I’m going to help them get rid of them very shortly.”

Kralt told council that the cameras had reduced average driving speeds in six study areas by between 13 and 26 km/h, while increasing speed limit compliance by up to 85 per cent.

There are two petitions currently active for and against.

Link to petition posted on change.org, urging the city to keep the cameras. https://www.change.org/p/keep-the-speed-cameras-in-brampton

Link to petition posted on change.org, urging the city to remove the cameras. https://www.change.org/p/ditch-the-speed-cameras-petition-for-immediate-removal-in-brampton-ontario

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/51264137

Used brake calipers taken off my old bike. SwissStop brake pads with a lot of meat left on them. A few more pics here.

A symbolic $10 for Lemmy comrades. Free if you can't pay.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/48902942

Judge ruled that the removal of the 3 bike lanes will put 'people at increased risk of harm and death'

The judge ruled Wednesday that Cycle Toronto and others "have established that removal of the target bike lanes will put people at increased risk of harm and death, which engages the right to life and security of the person."

Use your browser in reader mode to bypass the paywall.

TL: DR: Driver got a tiny fine and community service for killing a man and destroying the family of the victim's lives. Pretty much as expected, since vehicles are the only weapons that give you legal immunity to hurt or kill people with.

Edit: spelling and clarity.

(Link is in the title)

Registration ends tomorrow (June 19th). It's a great event that takes you though many of Ajax' cycle-friendly trails and communities.

archived link

#dougford

"Schabas also found the government failed to provide evidence that removing the lanes would alleviate congestion — one of the law’s stated purposes. In contrast, expert testimony presented by the applicants suggested lane removal would likely increase collisions, injuries and even deaths​."

archived

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27494091

Tonight's Toronto Critical Mass, "organized by the community, for the community", will see hundreds of cyclists take the streets in protest against this attempt to rip out our bike lanes. Meet-up is at Bloor St. and Spadina Ave. at 6:00 pm.

Cycle Toronto https://www.cycleto.ca/

Visit the Facebook group for more:

https://www.cycleto.ca/r?u=o6hy3ltLwo-dflPNfvaWKiW6yyaPhPtz2eTJUsob5PoiI7K4sdqtuCdpPZCea1fPjXCWz3iIUKR5qedlB5XtNQ&e=afd8d3f0606f8534b04fd6f600d0758f&n=2

Even though I don't live in the city, I enjoy supporting Toronto bike shops because they carry brands that my local shops don't.

I've purchased several items from Urbane, and just saw that they are having a sale for their 28th anniversary. Cool!

One of the items I was looking at was the Apidura packable musette bag.

Urbane lists it at $81, but on sale for $60. This didn't seem right, because I've seen it for around that price at other shops, so I looked again:

• La Bicicletta Toronto: $56 (regular price).
• Dismount Bike Shop (Toronto): $66 (regular price).
• Cyclesmith (Halifax and Dartmouth): $56 (regular price).
• The Cyclepath (Toronto): $66 (regular price).

Look, I can appreciate that "sales" can drive sales, but I know they've done this with other items, and have done it in the past during other sale events.

Is there any reasonable explanation why they would want to damage trust like this? I want to support them, but I don't want to be ripped off in the process.

EDIT: formatting

The screenshot was taken from a live stream at 1:30pm on a Wednesday, not during long-weekend rush hour.

The Gardiner, just like the 401 and the DVP, are a traffic nightmare nearly all the time, yet they don't have bike lanes on them.

This isn't some strange coincidence or conspiracy.

Car dependency, rather than people riding bikes, taking public transit, or walking, is the real problem causing traffic and gridlock.