peeved

It’s rare that my blog takes on such a combative tone, but tonight I’m fuming and I can’t help it. To the individual driving a white van who hit a young woman cycling near Seaton & Shuter tonight and then just drove off: seriously, are you even human? Rest well knowing that she’s strapped to a board in the emergency room right now. I really hope that one of the witnesses caught a glimpse of your plates and that the police lay charges against you. The outlook for you may not be very good.

I’m not a militant cyclist by any means. It’s not like I think I have some divine right to do whatever I please on the road and sneer at drivers that get in my way. Still, when you drive a car in Toronto, you have to navigate your vehicular capsule in concert with and with respect for streetcars, buses, pedestrians, and bicycles. It’s just the way it is. Sure, it’s a sensory overload that leads to stress and occasional mistakes. It’s nonetheless unfortunate that I have to make it my modus operandi to assume that drivers will always do stupid things on the road and that it’s up to me to protect myself.

On a related vein, Tenille Bonoguore sums up the struggle for Toronto’s road space and the political background of Toronto cycling in Saturday’s Globe T.O. section.

When I was in Copenhagen last year, I was firstly amazed at how thin and healthy looking everyone was, and secondly by the width of their bike lanes and how many people there were using them. The bike lanes were busier than the car lanes. I feel like we have a ways to go here still. I’m so looking forward to the day when we can tear down the Gardiner (a close ancestor to the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle) and replace all those vehicles with bicycles and pedestrians.