City
Morning Brew: Mandatory Helmets for Cyclists, School Starts at 10am, Leafs Enter Camp with High Hopes, Platform Changes at Union, More KISS for Oshawa?
Photo: "massey hall" by Jay Morrison, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
With the death of Darcy Allan Sheppard still fresh in many citizens and politicians' minds, Councillor Michael Walker's push for mandatory helmet and bike licences will be reviewed during a Public Works and Infrastructure committee meeting tomorrow. In the meantime, The Star has yet another article -- this time an instructional Q and A -- on how cyclists and motorists need to follow some basic rules in order to effectively and safely share the road. If only it were that simple. The majority of North American cities just aren't built to accommodate this sharing of the road, and while following the rules helps, it doesn't ensure that accidents won't happen at an alarmingly high rate.
In a move that comes about fifteen or so years too late (at least for me), the Toronto high school, Eastern Commerce, is piloting a project in which classes don't begin until 10am. Needless to say the students are thrilled, but there's actually compelling research to indicate that teen brains just aren't programmed for early classes. Perhaps, then, I'm still a teenager because it's feeling altogether too early this morning.
Hope springs eternal this time of the year, as my beloved (and often despised) Toronto Maple Leafs kicked off training camp over the weekend. With a revamped roster that bears Brian Burke's blueprint (how's that for alliteration?), expectations are back up in Leafland. At a very minimum, news about actual hockey games -- pre-season or not -- might help to turn attention away from that other saga.
GO commuters traveling through Union station will find that renovations now allow for increased access to the transit hub. But there's just one problem: the change to the platform means that a significant number of departures and arrivals have changed location, which is set to cause some confusion. Nevertheless, early indications from 680 News are that commuters are quite pleased with the progress.
Oshawa Councillor Robert Lutczyk is pushing for another KISS concert after tickets for a first one sold out in a matter of minutes. After having won an online competition for a live date from the band, the 'Shwa had to fight to bring the band to their small venue in the first place, so I'm thinking this ain't gonna happen. And this is too bad, Oshawa deserves a little good news every once in a while. And that's not smarmy downtown Toronto B.S. -- I mean it.
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No patience. No courtesy. No regard for anyone or anything beyond oneself. This problem behavior applies to cyclists and drivers et al.
That said, I don't see how a law can be enforced when there are so many grey areas to the subject.
Would bike licenses mean that parents can no longer teach their children how to ride out front of their house, in an alley, or on a cul de sac in suburbia?
Do we need to buy a book to study before we take a test? How much does the test cost?
How often does the license need to be renewed? What is that cost of that renewal?
Do we physically have to put a plate on our bikes? How much is the plate going to cost as well as the attachment to fix it to our bikes?
Can you get more than one plate if you own more than one bike?
Is the license an acceptable form of ID and proof of age?
Does it only allow you to ride a certain type of bike?
There are many oblivious people walking around the streets and sidewalks who carelessly walk out of shops and bump into groups of people. Others who stop seemingly randomly to peer into a shop window causing sidewalk congestion etc etc. Perhaps we should introduce walking licenses too?
Hell, people are killed in household fires due to lack of attention in their kitchen as well. Perhaps it is also a good idea to make people get a cooking license before they can feed themselves. That would save lives right?
Get real.
But I did have an idea that would be a good compromise: a free, but mandatory short course and test for all high-school students. You get your license once, and it is valid for life. Many of the students who will go on to be avid drivers will have more empathy for cyclists, and the cyclists will know that the drivers know how to expect cyclists to maneuver on the road.
No need for a separate bicycle license. That is retarded.
and i have no idea what happened, but even if was ENTIRELY her fault, but please don't shout at the person that was just hit, bleeding on the pavement. it's not cool. help them first, then get mad later, once they stop bleeding.
It'll never happen, but it should.
As a bonus, it would help erase the battle lines between cyclists and motorists, and make each "side" realize that they're more alike than they might care to admit.
Cause I sure didn't say I was being 'pushed, prodded, and abused'. Surely you'd have enough sense to properly read, process, and understand what you've read. I think I was pretty clear in implying that doing things you don't necessarily want to do at a young age builds character, contributes to your sense of responsibility, and ability to respect others (things you surely know nothing about).
They say "Ignorance is bliss". You, my friend, must be one blissful motherfucker. Must be nice to be uneducated and unemployed!
DAS' death is a good thing. Lots more violent couriers to go, but a start.
As to 10AM school - the real students are at school far earlier. Huge numbers of sports have morning practices at 7 or 7:30, as do many extra other extra curriculars - typically band. This lets people be involved in many things at the same time, though the writers here were all slacking, smoking dope, and cutting themselves. Real students went to football practice high or made sure to fit their drinking and drugs into their other commitments.
1. We should enforce helmets, licenses for all robbers.
2. possibly ban all robberies
3. charge the victim the robber for making the robber feel like he has to get away quickly
I'm content with appreciating instant karma though. My friend had a store in that hood, and robberies were a daily occurrence. Increasing the speed limit in that stretch may be a solution to the problem.
"Teenagers need to be pushed, prodded, and abused. Otherwise they'll just be unprepared for real life."
Implication: 'Real Life' (as defined by you) involves being "pushed, prodded, and abused". I take issue with this, because I don't believe it.
As for the other stuff you wrote, if you think you know that much about me from a random comment, you have bigger problems then can be addressed here.
What it did mean is that we *recognized* the luxury school systems afforded to us, and took advantage of it. If I took classes every day at 8AM, I wouldn't have gotten my job.
As for other arguments: School has never, ever prepared any of my peers for "real life." If you think learning in an isolated, controlled environment -- where your schoolmates and teachers are often the same ones for years -- is appropriate preparation, you're dead wrong.
As studies have pointed out (sigh), teens stay up late because they function better during the latter part of the day and so instinctively stay up later, not necessarily because they're young and stupid (even if they are).
(My boyfriend himself says he works better later. He's lucky, because he gets to work 10-6.)
And yes, please don't forget that not all of us work 9-5. Many people, if they have the choice, set their own hours, or their workplace just sets later hours.
My feeling is that a lot of working adults are just bitter that they weren't accommodated during their schoolyears and think that young'uns should just suck it up and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Later hours for high school students doesn't mean they don't have to do the same work, and punctuality still matters. Giving them that leeway of an extra hour just tells kids we trust them and we expect them to improve accordingly.
Don't act like kids are enemies that need to be browbeaten in order to teach them a lesson.