Car Free Day events in Toronto and bike news

[angela bischoff]

Hello Toronto Greenspiration-ites,

Monday, Sept. 22, is International Car Free Day. On Sunday Take the Tooker
and Bells on Bloor are hosting a bike ride on Bloor. We'll join up with
the paraders for a big street parteeee on Queen. See details below.

If you'd like a bike flag (each a different color, individually painted,
that says Bike Lanes on Bloor), I just made up 10 more, so get them on
Sunday, Monday, or contact me and I'll get one to you. If you can
contribute 10 bucks for the cost, that would be appreciated, but not
mandatory.

Then on Monday, Take the Tooker is one of many groups hosting tables at
the Car Free Day street party on Yonge and Dundas, organized by the Sierra
Club. Yonge St. will be open to people only from 10 - 3 p.m.  If you can
drop by for an hour to help get Bike Lanes on Bloor petition signatures,
please let me know. Thanks.

And finally, below find a news release that was sent out last week. A
group of us cyclists are intervening in a court case against the City of
Toronto for not accommodating cyclists in their reconstruction of Bloor
St. (between Avenue Road and Church St.). We believe this is the first
time cyclists have turned to the courts in their bid for safer streets for
2-wheels in Toronto. I'll keep you posted on this.

-angela <greenspi at web.ca>

-------------

Join Streets are for People! Bells on Bloor, Bike Pirates, Samba Elegua,
the Kensington Horns, the New Kings, Mr. Something Something and millions
of others around the globe in celebration of

WORLD CARFREE DAY - Sunday September 21, 2008

THREE WAYS TO PARTY

PARKING METER PARTIES - What can you do with a 6' x 12' parking space?
Queen St. west - from Bathurst St. to Trinity Bellwoods park - all day -
pay for a parking spot then breathe culture back into public space
normally used for car storage.  Bring a band and play music, have a
picnic, play games, whatever you like.  The space is yours for only
$2/hour.

BELLS ON BLOOR - Bike Ride
4pm - meet at Bloor and Spadina for a special critical mass style ride,
then join up with parade.

PARADE - 4th annual parade down Queen St.
4pm - meet at south gates of Trinity Bellwoods park
5pm - Parade east to Old City Hall.
Bring horns and bells and drums.  Bring your friends.  Bring your mums.
Bring bikes and trikes and things that are silly. Bring costumes and
banners and wings that are frilly. Bring sense of humour, and sense of
fun. We'll party like our team just won.  (ok-that's enough.  You get the
idea.)

Don't miss the surprise when three parties meet.

Photo op: between 6pm and 7pm University Avenue at Queen Street.

Check www.streetsareforpeople.org for more info.

--------

Toronto Cyclists Take Battle for Safe Streets to Court
Coalition of Bicycle Advocates Intervene in Court Case

FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE                                                          
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008

TORONTO: In what is likely the first intervention of its kind in Ontario
legal history, a coalition of cycling advocates, the Safe Cycling
Coalition, has sought and (yesterday) been granted the right to intervene
in an Ontario court case.

The case, first brought to the Ontario Superior Court  in August by
certain downtown merchants, alleges that the City of Toronto violated the
province's Environmental Assessment Act when it proceeded with the Bloor
St. Transformation Project --- along Yorkville’s so-called Mink Mile --- 
and failed to properly consult the public or to study alternatives.

“This is about one of Toronto’s most valuable public spaces -- a $25
million ‘transformation’ of that space warrants public consultation,”
explains Margaret Hastings-James, a Bloor Street bike-commuter who began
to advocate for bike lanes when hit, and nearly crushed, by a truck in
2002.  “The huge volume of pedestrian and cyclist traffic in this area
demands an allotment of dedicated and safe space.”

The intervening citizen advocate group asserts that proper classification
of the project would have  allowed cyclists the opportunity to highlight
provincial laws that direct municipalities to ensure the safety of all
roadway. Cycling advocates have long pushed city politicians for a bike
lane on Bloor St. -- one of the city's most heavily used, and most
dangerous, cycling routes.

“The Bloor St. Transformation Project does have some positive features for
pedestrian traffic,” said Angela Bischoff, lead contact for the Coalition.
“Unfortunately the City has again forgotten cyclists. Motor vehicles will
get about 15 meters in width of  the public roadway, and cyclists will get
zero. That’s not fair, and it’s certainly not safe.”

According to a 2007 Toronto Public Health report, 440 people die in
Toronto each year from the effects of traffic pollution.  The same report
indicated that the death toll could be reduced dramatically by investing
in cleaner options such as mass transit and better cycling infrastructure.

“The battle for safer cycling conditions in Toronto has now reached a new
phase,” said Albert Koehl, a lawyer representing the group. “The urgency
of problems like global warming and air pollution means we can no longer
tolerate old-school approaches to fixing our inefficient and dirty
transportation system. Bicycles are zero-emission vehicles that deserve a
safe space on our roads.”

In August 2008 William Ashley China Ltd. filed an action in the Ontario
Superior Court of Justice (Divisional Court) for a declaration that the
city's decision to proceed with the Bloor St. Transformation Project was
illegal. On Sept. 9, 2008 the Safe Cycling Coalition applied to the Court
for  an order allowing it to  
intervene. The application was granted on Sept. 15.

The members of the Coalition include cycling advocates with over five
decades of combined cycling advocacy experience. They include Angela
Bischoff, Margaret Hastings-James, Hamish Wilson, Martin Reis, and Kristen
Courtney.

The hearing of the case (William Ashley China Ltd. v. City of Toronto) is
scheduled for Oct. 9, 2008.

- 30 -

Contacts:
Albert Koehl, lawyer, 416-xxx
Angela Bischoff, 647-xxx
Margaret Hastings-James, 416-xxx





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