please. . .

Attorney General wins.

RIP Darcy Allan Sheppard

Image from CTV Toronto

In case you didn’t see the news today, former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death (Darcy Allan Sheppard). According to news sources, Michal Bryant and Darcy Allan Sheppard (a Toronto courier) had an altercation (it sounds like Mr. Bryant’s black convertable hit Sheppard’s bicycle). Bryant tried to drive away, with Sheppard clinging to the drivers side door. Bryant drove to the wrong side of the street and proceeded to try to wipe Sheppard from the side of the vehicle, travelling at speeds of around 90km/h. He was eventually successful after knocking the cyclist into a mailbox. The cyclist fell off and was run over, before Bryant drove away. He turned himself in later that evening. Sounds like the scene from a movie, but I am not making it up.

Here is the Toronto Star article.

Witnesses describe the events

I am no expert on law, and was not a witness to the event myself, but to me it sounds like so far Michael Bryant is getting away with murder. He is alreay out of custody until his Oct. 19 court date (I know, innocent until proven guilty). Let me propose a similar scenario. What if the cyclist and motorist had gotten into the same initial argument but then instead of the motorist using his car to bash the cyclist to death, the cyclist used his bike lock and bludgeoned the driver to death. Think the cyclist would have gotten off on bail? Would the cyclist be able to give a staged press release and ask the media to respect his family’s privacy? Would he have been charged with ‘dangerous operation of a bicycle lock causing death’? I am very interested to watch this case proceed, and curious to see what the actual sentencing for the guilty party will be. I wonder if he will receive a sentance similar to the one a cyclist might receive in the scenario I described above? Time will tell. In the meantime, good job Toronto cyclists for protesting the crime and the charges. Keep it up!

photo from: Martin Reis

I saw this article in the paper the other day and couldn’t believe it.  Calgary has the priciest parking in Canada BY FAR! Wtf?! Calgary seems to have more land than any other major city, it doesn’t make sense!

Canadian Parking Rate Breakdown:

Daily Median Rate Monthly Unreserved Median Rate

Canadian Market (CAD) (CAD)

Calgary, AB $22.00 $460.00

Edmonton, AB $14.00 $275.00

Halifax, NS $14.00 $153.00

Kitchener-Waterloo, ON $10.00 $100.00

Montreal, QC $17.00 $280.00

Ottawa, ON $17.00 $195.00

Regina, SK $8.00 $148.00

Saskatoon, SK $9.00 $158.00

Toronto, ON $22.50 $305.00

Vancouver, BC $17.00 $224.00

Victoria, BC $12.00 $185.00

Winnipeg, MB $18.00 $190.00

NATIONAL AVERAGE $15.04 $222.75

Here’s where I read it :

Now that spring/summer warm weather has arrived (finally!), an issue that seems to be surfacing across Canada is the loud shot-gun tailpipes on motorcycles driving around downtown. Personally, I get woken up regularly at various hours of the night when they go by any stoplight within 15 square blocks. It seems the majority of riders love holding in the clutch and revving their bikes to get that ‘pop pop bwapbwap’ sound that scares the living crap out of me at 2am. I can’t complain too much, because I love loud noise and if I had a chance to ride on one of them I would probably love the sound of my own bike. But is that noise necessary? I have read a few comments on various news articles, and readers comment that they need the loud noise on the muffler so cars know where they are. Personally, this is a load of crap because I don’t see any cyclists with shot gun mufflers riding around. Come to think of it, I might attach a stereo or an airhorn to the front of my bicycle. I wonder how motorcycle riders would like it if I bike up and down their residential streets blaring hip hop at 120db! I tried to get some amateur footage of just how loud these are, but on my digital camera 1.0 just doesn’t do it justice! I will try and get a clip by the end of summer. . .

Here are some articles from across the country that indicate that I am not alone in feeling that motorcycles are way too loud!!
toronto : http://www.wheels.ca/newsFeatures/article/549592
calgary: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Cars/Loud+motorcycles+throttle+Calgary+residents/1696331/story.html
kelowna: http://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=18349&start=45&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
fredricton: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/05/06/nb-fredericton-motorcycle-noise-1000.html

Ever feel like you could construct the roads better than they are?

Recently an Ottawa resident decided to take the law into his own hands and constructed, as well as placed a stop sign in his neighborhood. This was to prevent a large amount of cars using his neighborhood as a short cut to a major road. Once the city found out that this was not one of their signs (over at least 1 year later) they started up a large investigation to find out who this culprit was. With no results of this rebel yet, the city has also started to see if this intersection does in fact need a ‘true’ stop sign. The city finally realized this poser sign since it was not inbedded in concrete. Another less creative culprit in LA also made some signs… that made big head lines, not so much for the signs themselves but for what they said…. “slow the f*k down’ The results of these home made signs, made more of an impact than speed bumps, stop signs and lights combined. Not too bad for someone who cant exactly spell.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/06/traffic_signs_h.php
http://blogs.carpoint.ca/2009/06/mystery-sign-maker-literally-stops-traffic.html

I felt like I would add my few thoughts on the subject of drivers vs bicyclists to cyberspace along with everyone else. This is a bit of a personal subject, as I bike year round to work, to get groceries, to go to the record store, to visit my parents, etc. . .I don’t own a vehicle, but I end up renting one almost weekly for work (3/4 tonne) so I feel like I can approach the subject from both sides of the coin. In a nutshell, I think drivers are idiots who are completely mindless - focused on their texts, emails, phone calls, passengers, music, whatever. I think bicyclists are ignorant, big headed, cocky and not aware of their surroundings. (I guess I just don’t like people in general?!) But I do think eventually we can all get along. ..(refer back to the crazy traffic videos blog)

I also think that it’s best not to generalize or stereotype (remember that kindergarten class?). I can’t count the number of times I have cursed that d-bag who passes everyone at a light riding his $300 Canadian Tire bicycle. Where were you in January?!! Or the guy who sits in the middle of the right hand lane at a red light while 10 vehicles wait behind them to make a right hand turn (get out of the way!) When I get angry though, it is 95% of the time directed towards a motorvehicle. Guys who sit behind a cyclist, blarring their horns at them to move out of the way in a residential area are just. . ..rude? What gives a driver the right to 25+sq. feet of space on the road? (vs. the lowely cyclist who takes up less than 5 sq. feet.)

Here is an article from the Province in Vancouver talking about this very issue (drivers vs. bikers) and critical mass

http://www.theprovince.com/Travel/Ferry+Critical+Mass+just+anarchy+wheels/1624972/story.html

This issue has been getting a lot of play recently, especially in Vancouver where a cyclist was recently struck and killed in a bike lane on the way to work. If you are interested in what others have to say on this subject, read the incredibly full comments section.

http://www.theprovince.com/Travel/Female+cyclist+killed+crash+Langley+roadway/1620358/story.html

Along with the follow up article:

http://www.theprovince.com/Travel/Cyclist+dying+heard/1624969
/story.html

Just to show Vancouver is not alone, here is an article from Toronto debating if bike lanes are the way to go.

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/2009/05/25/9557511-sun.html

I came across this video of an intersection in India and it blew my mind! it was the craziest thing ever. . .yet everyone managed to get through with no problems whatsoever.

I couldn’t believe it so I looked up a few more. Here is a video from Vietnam.

Another one from INSIDE the traffic in Vietnam.

And finally, the traffic jams that we are used to:

(image taken from this dood’s gallery www.pbase.com/aar0n)

Yet it seems like its our culture that has the worst road rage. Weird!

Just thought I would write my own road rant today for once . . .

Now that it’s spring, I have been able to concentrate more on the drivers around me (as opposed to winter where I am constantly trying to not fall down in the snow.) No one is paying attention. At all. No one stops at crosswalks or stop signs. People who are turning right race to the corner and stop at the last second to look left for traffic, normally sticking their nose out into the lane slightly. I normally commute during rush hour and everyone is talking on cellphones or texting/emailing. They are all just off work, yet still working on the way home. I bike between traffic or beside traffic, so I see into peoples cars and see what they are doing. . .you can’t hide that cellphone in your lap! People who constantly switch lanes more than once, but that don’t get ahead frustrate me too. Same with people who try to drive in the bike lanes to pass other vehicles, slowing everyone down.
Well, that was a pretty mild rant. . I will try to do better next time! Instead of complaining though, I started thinking about what people could do. Fix the problems instead of grumbling about them. Here are my suggestions:
-to obtain a drivers license, everyone has to ride a bike downtown in their city. Instead of just focusing on ones self during the driving process, it will give people a better appreciation of what’s going on around them.
-cellphones should be banned from vehicles. I was at a safety meeting last week, and I had the privledge of listening to a professional driver who operates his own driving school. He put up some scary stats, including the fact that talking on a cellphone while driving results in the same reaction skills as someone with a 0.1 blood alcohol level (legal limit is 0.08). When you are texting, your eyes are also watching the road 400% less.
-I know cellphones can’t be banned, so I challenge auto makers to come up with safe solutions. . voice to text? Project words onto the windshield? I don’t have the solution to this one. . . (thoughts?)
-people should not be such idiots.

In other rants. . I wanted to touch back on the green light cameras. Calgary is not the only ones with the problems, check out this cnn clip I saw the other day. People are complaining about RED light cameras (already in place here for years). Just wait fellow neighbors to the south, soon you will be getting red light tickets AND speeding tickets all from the same camera. Let’s do a camera rant sometime.. .

I was cruising around on youtube tonight and stumbled on some music videos for songs about road rage! Awesome! And there are so many.. .most of them are kids playing car video games playing their favorite rage against the machine track in the background, but some where actual real live road rage music videos!

So I present you my Road Rage Music #1 scorecard!

Mower - Road Rage

B-

I am not a fan of hardcore so I don’t really like this song at all.  But it does have some rage in it! These guys probably rage about everything!  I can’t believe the effort that has gone into actually releasing this song, let alone the video.. .

Umconscious - Road Rage

A-

This track is actually kind of cacthy! And the video is funny because they have fake moustaches and drive infront of a green screen.  I almost finished this video!

Chemical Kate - Road Rage

D-

Terrible.

Instrumental Roadrage - Lasse Gjertsen style (better quality)

D-

I don’t want to see the ‘lesser quality’ video!

Chuck Brodsky - funny ukelele road rage song

B

Nice fun sing along ukelele to end the night and make you feel better about road rage.  Poor quality webcam vid, but this guy rocks the ukelele!

Stay tuned for the next installement!

Just wanted to follow up with our last post.  Calgary released their results from the month long study of their new green light speeding cameras as follows:

-Calgary Police Services mailed more than 700 warnings from TWO city intersections.

-Starting April 1, 2009, motorists will have to start paying for these infractions (I know I know, I am a little behind on this post!)

-Speeding tickets will range from $60 to $350.

-Eventually 40 of the city’s 44 red-light cameras will be modified to catch speeders

(The above data was collected from the Calgary Herald Online)

I did some rough math on this study.  Basically, drivers in Calgary will get 350 tickets/month at each intersection.  Let’s say the average ticket price is $150 . . .350*150=$52,500/month/intersection.  If you total this up over the 40 proposed intersections it amounts to ticket revenue = $25.2Million/yr! Make money money!

Sounds more like a Big Brother cash grab than a speeding deterrent to me!

Counter arguments include the fact that speed kills.  This is a true fact, so if more drivers are consciously driving safely, we might be able to avoid more deadly collisions in which case I am all for them.  The only problem is, the majority of drivers see a photo radar ticket as simply a speeding tax that is all part of the game in getting from point A to point B the quickest!