With 2023 coming to a close, this means another annual reflection is in order. From bike lane fights on Midtown Yonge and Bloor West to Olivia Chow’s mayoral by-election win to some nice long distance trail riding, this year has been pretty crazy! Let’s get started, shall we?
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| The 4th Annual Cycling Good Cheer ride |
If you participated in certain cycling events in Toronto, chances are you have seen a blog post about them as soon as an hour after the event finished. This blog called “Biking in a Big City” has been around for thirteen years which covered a fair number of advocacy events, gear reviews, long distance rides, and the World Human Powered Speed Challenge. I spoke with the blog’s author – Jun Nogami – to learn more about what first inspired him to start the bike blog and some of the things he has learned over the years.
Over the past decade, I had a chance to participate in a fair number of cycling related public consultations. While some of them did have their spicy moments such as the pre-pandemic Danforth Study and the Bloor West Complete Street Extension earlier this year, never have I seen quite the dumpster fire as yesterday’s virtual bike plan consultation. The culprits for this were opponents associated with so-called “Balance on Bloor”; the campaign associated with Cody MacRae who started a 12,000-signature petition calling for the recent Bloor West extension in Etobicoke to be removed. Hence it's time to rant again!
Noise pollution in our cities is something we experience every day from traffic to construction to fireworks, yet it doesn’t get as much attention as other issues facing Torontonians. However, the noise bylaw review will come to the Economic and Community Development Committee on January 11, 2024. I spoke with Ingrid Buday on November 15, 2023 to learn about her advocacy story on noise and why Torontonians need to get involved with this noise bylaw review.
