Thursday, May 25, 2023

Tonight's tonic: "Debunking three big myths about bike lanes...and why every North American city needs as many bike lanes as they can possibly build"

Tonight's tonic: "Debunking three big myths about bike lanes" by Taylor C. Noakes, a public historian and independent journalist.

I couldn't agree more with these facts.  Enough of the neo-con nonsense that Mark Saunders is spouting in this election, which is just being pushed to divide Torontonians against Torontonians simply to win political power - the sleaziest game so often played by conservative politicians these days.  

"Some Toronto mayoral candidates question their efficacy — but every North American city needs as many bike lanes as they can possibly build..."

"If you’re having a hard time deciding who to vote for, let me make it easy for you: anyone advocating removing bike lanes from any part of the city should be immediately disqualified. They are not a serious candidate — they simply do not understand fundamental aspects of how cities work. 

"Bike lanes have a greater passenger capacity than lanes for vehicular traffic. The average single lane of private motor-vehicle traffic has a capacity of between 600 and 900 vehicles per hour, representing between 600 and 1,800 people (and it’s closer to the lower end of that range because most cars have but a single occupant).

"By contrast, the average two-way protected bike lane (which typically occupies less space than a single lane of traffic), has a capacity of 7,500 people per hour.

"Congestion isn’t just a problem of people not getting where they need to go in a timely manner; it’s also a problem of pollution and emissions. Congested traffic is a major source of the carbon-dioxide emissions that are fuelling the climate emergency.

"A common yet utterly debunked argument against bike lanes is that, because they often replace street parking, they are therefore bad for small businesses. I always thought this was a particularly ridiculous argument, given that most cars travel too fast for most drivers to get a good look at what’s inside a shop window.

"People who use bikes as their primary means of conveyance are in fact better stimulators of local businesses than are people in cars. A recent study from Transport for London provides some truly jaw-dropping insight into just how much economic stimulus can be created by re-orienting city streets to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists.

"Over the course of a month, a cyclist or pedestrian will spend 40 per cent more than a motorist. Improvements to the public realm that facilitate pedestrian or cyclist access can increase retail sales by as much as 30 per cent. Installing bike-parking infrastructure can yield as much as five times the amount of retail spending per square metre than the same allowed to car parking. Cyclists and pedestrians were also shown to visit the small businesses of their local commercial thoroughfares more frequently than motorists did — frequently twice as often."

Friday, May 19, 2023

Today's tonic: "The Leap: Alberta Conservative Lee Richardson on Why He’s Voting NDP"

Today's tonic: "The Leap: Alberta Conservative Lee Richardson on Why He’s Voting NDP"

"Policy: Why won’t you be voting for Danielle Smith? 

"Richardson: I am a Conservative, a Progressive Conservative in the Peter Lougheed tradition. Danielle is not a Conservative.

"Sadly, she is not the Danielle Smith I first knew and admired 30 years ago. She was President of the U of C campus Progressive Conservative Club and a hard-working Progressive Conservative volunteer in my ‘93 federal election campaign. She was then bright, thoughtful, and driven – always challenging herself to get over her fear of meeting people, something she’d have to do, to someday get elected herself.

"Over the intervening years, a clear vision or consistent political ideology or party loyalty would not impair that goal. As her political career ebbed and flowed, her self-professed libertarianism gave way to grievance politics and tactical populism. Danielle’s Tucker Carlson-inspired radio talk show provided the vehicle for the resurgence of her political following while stoking division, hate and fear in listeners, with negative rhetoric, culture wars, and conspiracy theories. The more provocative, outrageous, or extreme were the views expressed, the higher the ratings. Lost were the traditional Conservative values of integrity, ethics, respect for our institutions, authority, the rule of law, and the norms of a democratic society..."