Karen Stintz wants to crack down on bikes on sidewalks
We can’t imagine why Karen Stintz, who’s got work up to her eyeballs with the restructuring of the TTC under Rob Ford’s Transportation City plan, wants to pick another fight. But some councillors are able to multi-task better than us, we suppose. Stintz’s new project is to crack down on cyclists who ride their bikes on sidewalks. She’s requesting ideas on a new approach from police and civic staff.
According to the Toronto Sun:
The public needs to know that biking on the sidewalk is dangerous and illegal, Councillor Karen Stintz said as her request for civic staff and Toronto Police to come up with a new approach to the issue was approved at the city’s public works committee.
“Sidewalks are not the place for cyclists. Sidewalks are for pedestrians,” she said.
“If cyclists don’t feel safe on the streets, then we need to address that. But the way to address that is not to say ride on the sidewalks.”
Ah, debates about the proper place of cycling in Toronto! It’s like last year’s election all over again (anyone else remember “sheer madness”?). In this case, however, things are further complicated by the fact that there seems to be some debate among the Ford executive committee. For example, in fall 2009, Denzil Minnan-Wong suggested that in the emptier parts of the suburbs, cyclists should be able to ride on sidewalks because there are few to no pedestrians on the main arterials (thanks to Matt Elliot for the catch). Of course, not all suburban politicians are open to that idea. Biking west along the lake, cyclists will undoubtedly pass signs put up by the old Etobicoke council snarling “NO BIKE RIDING ON THE SIDEWALK.”
Maybe the disagreements are minor, though. The larger problems are that some of these regulations are mixed up with provincial law—for example, electric bikes are treated as bikes instead of motor vehicles—and the bylaws within Toronto are basically an enormous mess. Sorting all this out will take some time. We expect cyclists will still be able to enjoy one more summer of reckless abandon. Just, seriously, try not to hurt anyone.
• City seeks to curb bikes from sidewalks [Toronto Sun]
• Antiquated bike bylaws need updating: police [Toronto Star]
• Toronto cyclists get sidewalk warning [CBC News]
Here’s my view of “SideWalk Sissies” on the busy downtown sidewalks of Toronto…Can’t speak for the desolate Burbs of course ;-]
http://thumbshift.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/sissie/
Just Sayin
Jo
Cars are only about ten million times more dangerous than bicycles.
Karen Stintz is clearly an idiot.
I’ll stay off the sidewalk when the City gives us bike lanes in Scarborough!!!!!!!! I pay taxes too.
I stongly oppose sidewalk cycling too, but it seems that we’re ignoring the much bigger problem. In my neighbourhood, I have to avoid cars, trucks, and vans driving and parking on the sidewalks much more often than I have to avoid bikes.
Why don’t we crack down on the bigger problem first?
When i ride my bike on the road, I get cut off by cars at least 3 times an hour. i’ve gotten hit by cars 3 times while I am riding my bike on the road! When I ride on the sidewalk, I am patient with slow pedestrians, I don’t ride fast when there are people around, i have never hit anyone or clipped anyone.
Anyone that has rode a bike for a while would know how dangerous the road is for someone on a bike. Obviously the overweight over fed politicians wouldn’t understand that. (ask yourselves, have you seen many fat people on bikes?)
How about this idiot politician make the roads safe for the bikes before she asks us to ride on the roads?
“If cyclists don’t feel safe on the streets, then we need to address that.”
How about addressing that before a couple bikers gets killed by cars on the street because of her stupid re-enforcement.