There IS an app for everything!

Want to help increase funding to Cycling infrastructure in Toronto? There's an app for that now!

Download the Toronto Cycling App for Android or iPhone

Basically- city infrastructure budgets are usually allocated with hard facts. If we get more facts about who cycles and where in Toronto, we can get more money spent on it! Tracking your daily bike trips can help provide the City with the hard data it needs to allocate bigger budgets!  You choose when you want to track what rides, which is great for privacy and battery saving.

The city even built-in surveys to this app to get all kinds of feedback on cycling preferences. Right now Toronto is going through a very painful growth-spurt, this is the time to speak up if you want your say on how Toronto will operate as we move forward into a Ford-Free city!

If you know roadies or trail riders who zip along the water trail or hammer in the Don Valley, send it to them too. Then data will be collected, and that info could go to improving trail systems and increasing the importance of providing cycling routes for fitness in Toronto. Also, wouldn't it be nice to not have to share the route with roadies when you're taking a stroll or running errands, and vice-versa when you want to get your sweat on while you stretch your bike legs?

Hmmmm... maybe we can even do something like a massive bike ride up and down Jarvis Street with everyone tracking their data? Wouldn't it be fun if so much info was collected on that street they HAD to put back in the bike lanes on Jarvis, forever? I miss those bike lanes when I go to my Dad's place, they were useful for following the Deadly Nightshade's #1 rule: DON'T DIE.  

1Love
xo MegO! xo

This Week's Rad Event Round Up

Here are some of the coolest bike events in North America the internet had to offer. From Halloween races, memorial workshops, commuting with your co-workers to being proud to be plaid, there is a never ending supply of fun to be had for those who love bicycles and the people that ride them!


Cogzilla is throwing down a Blackcat Alleycat in Atlanta, Georgia on October 25th



On the flip-side of 'Murica in LA, Red 5 Yellow 7 is curating Ghost Bikes of LA



October 27th, you can put on your best and go on the Ottawa Plaid Parade



October 28th,Vancouver wants you to get your co-workers to commute with you all week



Cycle Toronto is throwing down a Ghost Bike Lane ride on October 29th

Meanwhile in Canada: Winter Biking FTW!

We present to you three big winter biking events for y'all in Toronto who miss the glorious scene of the summer, when cyclists take over the city in pure fabulousness. In winter Toronto rocks hard at winter biking, so come one, come all and lets have some fun!



Tomorrow!!! It's The Coldest Day of the Year Ride put on by Cycle Toronto! (What's with these last minute posts, right?... jezz...) Meet at 12 noon on Wed Jan 30 at Armoury St. and Chestnut St, just behind City Hall. (see map).



Toronto Icycle 2013!!!!! Wooot! It's Saturday, February 16th, 2013, and starts at 7pm at Dufferin Grove Park. (That's 875 Dufferin Street, just south of Bloor on the east side.) To explain this to outsiders, basically this is a bike race around an ice rink. In costumes. With your friend heckling. Nudity in various forms is ensured. Hilarity! It's because we Canadians embrace winter, and want to have fun all season long. If this doesn't inspire you to bike in the winter, nothing will. (Check out the 2011 National Post article on Icycle that asks Thora and Cannibal Vixen about what they do to bike in the winter.)


Big ups to Jo No for the video and pictures.


And then we have a The Great Lakes Winter Classic polo tournament going on during the Toronto International Bike Show, March 2 & 3, 2013. Keep Checking out the Bike Polo TO website for information as she comes. 



And while not an event, it's related... Our Friends at HMPL just put out a new, semi-NSFW video about enjoying "winter" biking in Vancouver. Ha. (Nice buns there Scott ;)
HMPL Winter from Matthew on Vimeo.

Ontario Cyclists- Speak up for your streets! One day to go!

Natalie Boustead, from the About Face Collective

Hey, Rob Ford may still be at Toronto City Hall, but in remembering he is only one man in a large democracy, lets all take the time to participate in this call to action by Cycle Toronto. If we can get the provincial government on board backing better cycling infrastructure, then the Fords anti-cycling slant gets CRUSHED. Let's do this- now! Deadline is Tuesday, January 29th, 2013!

On Nov 30, 2012, the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) released its Draft Cycling Strategy. It's the first provincial bike policy update in 20 years! We're encouraged to see the provincial government taking action to improve cycling infrastructure and better educate all road users.

The Draft Cycling Strategy is a response in large part to the Coroner's Review of Provincial Cycling Deaths released in June 2012. The MTO is reviewing the Coroner's recommendations and we need you to tell them how important a provincial Complete Streets policy and lowered speed limits are to you. We need a specific funding commitment with realistic and achievable timelines. We also want the MTO to focus on helmet promotion rather than mandatory helmets, create a new definition for e-bikes, adopt the one-metre rule and make sideguards mandatory for heavy trucks.

Action Alert: Tell the MTO that you want safer streets! We encourage you to:

1) Read our 22 recommendations
2) Submit feedback directly to the MTO before this Tues Jan 29

The Strategy signals a growing recognition by the Province of the role cycling plays in easing congestion, achieving daily requirements for physical activity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing economic development opportunities. This is our opportunity to influence its development. Submit your comments before Tuesday!

Cycle Toronto’s on-going advocacy efforts aren't possible without you. Renew your membership or make a donation today to support our work.

Ride safely,

Jared Kolb

Director of Campaigns & Membership
jared.kolb@cycleto.ca

Also, if you missed it, Ontario Physicians are calling for more bike lanes, STAT. Last year I attended the Ontario Cycling Summit in Toronto, which was sponsored by many levels of government, including Health Canada. In a presentation, I was stunned as I watched a presentation on Ontario's projected healthcare costs due to sedentary lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and stroke, which are set to explode within 15 years. In a cartoon the upward red line would have broken through the page and shattered the ceiling. It's going to be not only a lifestyle epidemic, but a health care crisis due to straining of funds. So if you are trying to convince people to support cycling infrastructure, tell them Doctors and Economists are calling for this due to the very real possibility that car-culture is going to bankrupt this province by 2030. So Mr. Ford, since you claim to want to run this city like a business, I suggest you act like a CFO and do something about the fiscal future of your Province and City- now.

The #1 Rule

The Deadly Nightshades have only one rule: Don't Die.

Basically any other suggestions we have stem from Rule #1. These Biking Rules Street Code from NYC's Transportation Alternatives are all about leading by example. Leading by example is pretty much the best system to help create a pleasant cycling culture in any city, AND help anyone adhere to Rule #1.



There are a few things in there that could be argued- going against traffic on small one way streets can be much safer then riding with traffic on very busy streets. While helmets are awesome and DNS is in full support of protecting your central processing system with a brain bucket, helmet laws can actually prevent people from riding, and that's lame. Everything else is pretty much spot on.

Since being back in Toronto I've actually been shocked at the lack of bike lights in this city. Vancouver can get so dark you end up needing lights just to see where you are going. In Toronto we have so much light pollution visibility isn't as dire, but lights in traffic are a great way to follow DNS Rule #1. You may not realize how vulnerable you actually are until you yourself are in a car or bus and are surprised by a cyclist without a light. Check out Cycle Toronto's Get Lit! program for more info.

Cyclists have a bad rep for causing bike accidents. (If you have Linkedin you can read this bizarre thread on Ghost Bikes and the odd turn it takes.) This is basically a BS perception based on... I'm not too sure. A few bad bike eggs? Car drivers not wanting to take responsibility? It's well known that when you demonize a group of people it makes it easier for someone to justify suppressing or hurting that group, as they become the dangerous "others". Old-as-time tactic in warfare. Gross, right?


don't tell me what to do

When campaigning for change, it's important to not take on the tactics of what you are trying to change. Albert Einsteing put it best: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." There is definitely a demonetization of drivers in the cycling world. In return all individual cyclists can also be lumped into one big cyclist category. So let's drop it. It won't get us anywhere. Dave Meslin did a great piece of advocacy campaign called Drivers for Jarvis based on the misconception that in the streets it's "drivers" vs. "cyclists".

I digress. Leading by example is awesome. So is changing misconceptions, and breaking down walls. Let's make this city work for everyone so we can get down to more pressing issues like the latest nail art trends, feasting with friends and dance parties.

Toronto Cyclist Union Video

Go to the My City Lives website and check out their video on the Toronto Cycling Union!

It's so cute! I wish I could embed it.

My City Lives seems to be quite a cool concept in itself.

"The idea for My City Lives was born out of the common problems we all shared at Creativity Killed the Recession – a grassroots community that our Co-Founders Adam and Adil started in 2009. These problems include, but are not limited to: our city's need for economic stimulus; supporting arts and culture in the region; connecting communities, and stimulating civil pride in our city and its institutions. We believe that by addressing these issues, we could help our city elevate itself out of the recession and push towards a level of prosperity that is possible on local, national, and even global levels."