Here's a quote from Accordion City city councillor Rob Ford in an article in yesterday's edition of 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.The best summary of the problem with Rob Ford comes from a comment in the blog Raise the Hammer:
Ford is an idiot, there's no defending that, but he highlights a common problem among City Councilors:
a. 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.
The good news is that from this description, there's hope for this guy -- after all, as the saying goes, "Ignorance can be cured, but stupid is forever."
What we need to do is build up a collection of the benefits of living in a cities with a good mix of pedestrians, bikes and cars, where a significant portion of the population use bicycles to get around.
Office phone:
Google Talk:
Someone just needs to show him the Highway Traffic Act where it clearly speaks to bicycles as vehicles on the road.
Idiot.
You're just being silly.
-Jim Haschmann
I thought that that was the existing deal though. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Btw: There is currently a petition to the German parliament (Bundestag) to abolish the obligation to use designated cycle facilities.
It's here:
http://itc.napier.ac.uk/e-Petition/bundestag/view_petition.asp?PetitionID=395
The German constitution provides that _everyone_ (including foreigners) have the right to petition the parliament, so please sign!
In case you have questions, please contact me at blog@tessarakt.de. Maybe I'll prepare a translation of the petition.
http://cycleride.de/petition/wiki/index.php/Text_of_the_petition_for_the_abolition_of_the_obligation_to_use_separate_cycling_facilities#Reasons
Rob Ford has said a lot of stupid things but this one is the winner for me.
When I first started riding to work in Toronto I found the bike lanes were more unsafe than riding with traffic. However over the years, I think most drivers have learned how to interact with the lanes and cyclists in a respectable way. The problem is the few bad apples(drivers) who continue to use the bike lanes as their own personal parking, turning and passing lanes.
Oh and yes there are a number of bad cyclists out there too. Rest assured I spend as much time yelling at them about running red lights as I do to the motorists.
That is so great. I am so glad to have that freedom.
Flawed logic buddy. Just because some cyclists don't obey the rules it doesn't mean that ALL cyclists have no rights. They do have rights in that as much as any citizen they own and paid for those roads to be built.
Try this out for logic: As a cyclist I'll happily share the road with cars if they'll only learn to obey lights and stop signs, get off their cell phones, quit opening car doors into my space and quit cutting off me and my fellow cyclists. Until then, get off the road, get out of my way and stay in the parking lot.
And by Ford's logic I should be able to run over walkers on the bike path without remorse...it would, after all, be their fault, now wouldn't it?
Oh my God ...
No, they wouldn't.
But to your councillor: there is a distinction to be made between being at fault (for what, the pull-quote doesn't say) and thus deserving what lumps one gets, and willingly taking responsibility for one's actions in order to make the city one lives in more pleasant. Both he and one of the Anonymouses here seem to be confusing two kinds of cyclists which in reality are almost disjoint sets.
I'll also take a lesser responsibility for my fellow cyclists, which is why I'm prepared to explain my point of view to them, go on Critical Masses and help dissuade unhelpful behaviour, and just generally try to be a good citizen and integrated traffic. I do apologise to any motorist who's had a bad experience with a cyclist on the road; I'm sorry that there are some idiots who give the rest of us a bad name. Rest assured, we're not all like that.
http://www.toronto.ca/wards2000/images/ward02.gif
For a guy dedicated to "visiting constituent's homes personally" I'm willing to bet the farm that all of his constituents cheered "right on" when he said that.
Remember, unless he's planning on running for mayor, comments like this are his ticket to re-election.