Addressing Food Courier Train Crowding Concerns

Recently, there have been photos circulating on social media about food courier bikes crowding GO trains along the Kitchener GO line, including on dedicated bike cars used on the Niagara trains during the summer months. This has unfortunately been the latest round of criticism towards food couriers with last year seeing accusations of them hogging Bike Share Toronto’s e-bikes prior to the pricing changes and Councillor Dianne Saxe’s motion calling for e-bikes and e-scooters used by couriers to have “unique identifiers”. These incidents of blaming food couriers are unacceptable and must be called out. Instead, we road safety advocates need to work with the couriers and groups like Gig Workers United to come up with some solutions to remedy the situation. Especially since we should be encouraging deliveries by bike over those done by motor vehicles in order to pursue meaningful climate action.

A crowded GO train bike car on February 2, 2024 (via Janice Jim)

2024 Coldest Day of the Year Ride

One of my favourite things to do during the winter months is to take part in Cycle Toronto’s “Coldest Day of the Year” Ride; an event aimed to promote winter cycling. However, this year’s event was unusually mild with temperatures around 10’C which can be very worrying from a climate change perspective. About 150 to 200 people joined us at Tom Riley Park to ride the recently extend Bloor bike lanes east to Christie Pits Park, which was almost as many as last November’s Bloor bike lane rally.

Road Safety and the Green New Deal

Aside from Toronto’s snail pace of bike lane and public transit installation, one thing that has become incredibly frustrating for me is the lack of global climate action despite the Kyoto (1997) and Paris (2015) agreements. At a time the world’s leading scientists urged people to reduce greenhouse emissions in half by 2030 to avoid catastrophic climate change, they elect folks such as Donald Trump in the United States and Doug Ford in Ontario who are doing the opposite. Something that has gotten me worried about this fall’s federal election. The good news is millions of youth – inspired by Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg – have had enough and held school strikes urging world leaders to treat climate change as an emergency. American politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared a need for a Green New Deal; something recently introduced in Canada as the next step to the Leap Manifesto.

A Flooded Commute

Last week, Ontario and Québec were subject to heavy rain and flooding with tourist attractions such as the Toronto Islands closed to the public until at least July. During my bike commute to work this week, I got a close hand encounter of flood conditions by the mouth of the Rouge River.

Submerged access to Toronto-Pickering bridge

Cycling Towards Climate Optimism

Over the past twelve months, Cycle Toronto and advocates across the city were hard at work with the Bloor Loves Bikes campaign, which gained support from over 9300 residents, dozens of local businesses, and residents’ associations. One group which contributed significantly to the successful pilot project vote on May 4, 2016 is the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF). I interviewed Gideon Forman – their Climate Change and Transportation Policy Analyst – to learn more about the DSF’s campaign efforts and environmental leadership in general.

Yonge Loves Bikes ride in June 2016

Sowing the Seeds of Social Shift

From the 19th century Industrial Revolution to the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, civilization has seen periods of significant social change. Naomi Klein's book "This Changes Everything" and recent events like the Leap Manifesto town hall and Black Lives Matter tent city prove this shift is happening right now. Let’s take some time to discuss the book, the recent events, and how everything is interconnected.

Put Down Your (Political) Swords

It’s been a few weeks since the longest election campaign in Canadian history ended. While it left me burnt out and disappointed, given my MP (Peggy Nash) was defeated along with every NDP MP in Toronto and Atlantic Canada, it also means no more elections until 2018. This is a good opportunity to focus away from politics (except for cycling matters, of course) and get myself back in order. Since I will have to work with a Liberal MP now, let’s get some first impressions of the new Liberal government.

Jobs, Justice, and the Climate

Since my childhood, environmental issues have consistently been those closest to my heart. This has taken several forms such as nature photography, hiking, supporting public transit, and my primary focus on cycling advocacy. On Sunday, July 5, I was able to express this passion for the environment by attending Toronto’s March for Jobs, Justice, and the Climate; held ahead of this week's Climate Summit of the Americas.

The March progressing down University Avenue

Many Paths to Solving Climate Change

With US President Barack Obama’s recent veto of the Keystone XL project and the Harper government’s continued rejection of environmental action, it became necessary for Canada’s provinces and municipalities to step in. The City of Toronto is one such municipality, which held its inaugural meeting of the Subcommittee on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation on Monday, March 2 at City Hall’s council chamber. Hundreds of residents attended the meeting, which was chaired by Councillor Gord Perks. The subcommittee’s mandate lasts until December 31, 2016 and is tasked with identifying actions needed to achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The focus of this meeting was to establish the action plan’s terms and references as per this agenda item and associated presentation.