City
Morning Brew: Smoker Nabbed, Pipes Leaking, Beaches Open
Photo: "Book sale" by Miguel Navarrete, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
On Monday at 6pm, a driver was clocked doing 105km/h in a 50km/h zone - on the Bloor Street Viaduct (a section of road that utilizes marked bike lanes). How the driver managed to get up to that speed during rush hour traffic is a bit of a head-scratcher, but why he would feel compelled to do so is even more mind-boggling. Toronto Police have issued over 1000 driver suspensions under the speeding/stunt driving law since it was introduced in September 2007.
A Vaughan woman has the (dis)honour of being the first person in Ontario to be caught and ticketed for smoking in a car with children on board. The legislation came into effect over 4 months ago, which confirms what many have been saying all along - that it's a tough one to enforce.
Aging infrastructure is to blame for what a new study is revealing - that about one-quarter of treated water doesn't make it to our taps because of old, leaking pipes. It's claimed that Toronto sees about 25% losses (a figure that's disputed by the head of the city's water department), while our younger neighbour to the north, Vaughan, sees just 10% losses.
Most of Toronto's beaches have been opened for the summer season, although a few are testing too high for E. coli and remain closed. I've never swam (only waded) in Lake Ontario right off the shoreline of Toronto, but if I did, I'd be certain to keep my mouth held firmly closed the whole time.
The province is aiming to set strict standards for wind turbine deployment. For a single unit to be installed, it must be no closer than 550m from any home, and for clusters of turbines, that minimum required distance from dwellings increases. The new rules may put a quick end to plans aiming to add another turbine or two near the existing one at Exhibition Place.
When the gas station price board reads .02, it doesn't mean gas has plunged to 2 cents per Litre. Just in time for summer, gas prices are really close to rolling over $1/L, representing the highest price since back in October 2008.
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I spend a lot of time in boats around here and believe me, I'd never swim at any of those beaches.
To me, the syringes, condoms and tampon applicators that wash onto the beaches from the storm sewers are a bigger "barrier to enjoying the lake" than the Gardiner Expwy ever will be.
Also, I'm surprised no one has come up with a "personal" turbine you can store in your backyard (assuming you live in a house - of course). I would think that would make as much sense as having solar panels on your roof.
There is stuff like this, they get bigger.
There is usually a lot redtape around those though and people can't install them. At least there is in the US, i read a few personal case studies.
I think you're using the wrong adjective. Would you really want a tall, loud, and vibrating wind turbine right next to the property line of your house in the city or the country? This is just about not being a nuisance to your neighbours. If you have a big farm and want to plunk some in the middle, go nuts.
I think it is more than relevant to point out that the person was going 50km/h on a mixed use roadway as it is much different than someone doing 50km/h on a country road or highway with little in the way of cyclists and pedestrians
Dave: The regulation does not mention safety.
Ace Hardware as some distribution/wholesale agreements with Canadian organizations, so I predict you will see this here at about the same time.
See also: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/earthtronics-to-launch-small-wind-turbines-for-the-rooftops/
I'm thrilled that the woman was ticketed. It's not like the government (Ministry of Health Promotion/Smoke Free Ontario) didn't do any advertising. Perhaps this news will serve as a cautionary tale and advertise the Act.
It acts better as a statement of fact, which should hopefully discourage the behavior. Smoking in cars with children present is bad: Fact.
There should now be no question as to whether it is okay to smoke with your kids in an enclosed area or not. Yeah, people will still do it, but now it can give the CAS an outlet to look into the mother/father's parenting abilities.
The station is one side of the tracks, and on the other is a sound barrier and an entire subdvision. If this legislation has been in place at the time, the turbine would be illegal since it's <50 meters from houses.
The irony is that it's okay to build a train line right next to houses, but not a wind turbine??
This smells stupid.
One of the comments posted on the linked article states that he/she rolls down his/her window to yell at people smoking with children in the car. Wow...that's brave if you travel on GTA's road-raged highways and bi-ways.