Back from Australia (much more on that later), but to get things rolling again, here’s an item from my Inbox by way of Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing:
Toronto councillor: dead cyclists have themselves to blame!
Joey “AccordionGuy” deVilla reports on the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of an elected city official saying. Toronto councillor Rob Ford told the Toronto Star: “I can’t support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.”
Joey highlights a comment from the Raise the Hammer blog,
Ford is an idiot, there’s no defending that, but he highlights a common problem among City Councilors:
. he does a great job at meeting his constituent’s needs. A recent Star article highlighted a day with Councilor Ford which found him working 12 hours, and visiting constituent’s homes personally, along with various city staffers, to address their complaints directly. Now that’s service. He is also ethically astute and regularly files the lowest expense reports of all Toronto Councilors. But:
b. he has a complete lack of understanding of how to build and manage a livable city. His ignorance is truly astounding.
I don’t know if a) is true, but b) is clearly demonstrated.
Speaking of bike lanes, one of the forummers on the SkyscraperPage forum was astute enough to mention that the world hasn’t collapsed with the reduction in lanes on Cambie St. and the Cambie Bridge (the latter southbound narrowed from three lanes to one lane) – and suggested that it’s time to reconsider the “least drastic means” (and cheapest) version of bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge. Hmmm.
As an aside, I have noticed a lot of those hoses for traffic counts across roadways around Cambie Bridge and alternate routes (Smithe, Nelson, Pacific Blvd, etc.). Hopefully the bridge restriction is providing the City with data on traffic dispersion patterns, etc.
Now would be a good time to widen the west sidewalk of the Cambie Bridge.