City
Morning Brew: Scarborough Bomb Scare, Gunmen in School, York U Open for Jewish Holidays, TIFF Tizzy Continues, E-Bike Crash
Photo: "Dupont" by denmar, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
After a roughly 1.6 square kilometre region of northern Scarborough was evacuated yesterday afternoon, it remains unclear whether or not 'the device' that caused the scare was a bomb or not. A Toronto Star report suggests that the van, owned by a 27 year-old Centennial College student, may have used some sort of alternative fuel engine, and that it was the suspect himself that informed police of the danger.
The major worry was sparked by the fact that the van had been towed to an impound lot on Markham Rd. right beside a sizeable propane tank. Although police downplayed the incident after the device was secured, the student has been arrested and will likely face criminal charges. Why do I get the sense that the whole story has yet to surface with this?
In another story that's yet to become entirely clear, a Burlington high school is closed today after a 21 year-old man was found running through its halls with a shotgun early this morning at around 2am. The suspect is in custody, and details are sure to follow.
For the first time since 1974, York University will be open on the Jewish holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Although some are accusing the university of caving to charges that labeled the former practice unfair to students other faiths, York officials say the cancellation of the holidays is the result of a new fall term reading week.
The battle over the featuring of a Tel Aviv film program at TIFF rages on. After a press conference yesterday by Viggo Mortenson and Jane Fonda there was a small protest (about 250 peole) near Ryerson University. Perhaps in response to this, or to the controversy in general, well-known actors Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lisa Kudrow, and Natalie Portman have taken out an advertisement in today's Toronto Star (on page A13) to explain their position, which highlights freedom of speech. The controversy began when Canadian filmmaker John Greyson pulled his film from the festival last month.
And in more bad news for two-wheeled commuters, a police cruiser and a driver (rider?) of an e-bike (electronically propelled bicycle) collided last night near Kingston Rd. and Midland Ave. The operator of the bike, who was also carrying a passenger, has suffered life-threatening injuries. I don't know the circumstances of the crash, and I don't want to start a comment controversy on the back of this man's misfortune, but my experiences with these e-bikes is that they're very difficult to predict, both as a cyclist and a driver.
Discussion
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I think it is interesting that the new 'bike' lanes are turning more into 'E-Bike, Mobility Scooter' lanes.
That's called "passing on the right" and it's illegal.
Your in/on a motor vehicle - stay in your lane people.
Re: High school shotgun
I'm definitely jumping to conclusions, but for what other reason would a student try to sneak and hide in a high school with a loaded shotgun other than to blast away fellow students who taunted him?
So they're a great option, except for the population that is so enamored of them, quite like most people who use bicycles for transport instead of fitness. I'd spout derogatory comments about scooter owners, but you see so few of them downtown, except for David Rocco.
using bikes for fitness is good, but using them to commute is a bad thing ?
The fucked up thing about the fat north american culture is the mind set of using automated devices to make life easier and than paying large ammounts of money and wasting more energy on gyms which are absolutely unneccessary for any one that lives a normal active life style.
Gyms are a plague. Boxing gyms make sense for me, places with spinning classes are a waste of space. Get a bike, save time, money and mental health.
If those who rode them all respected the rules of the road (just like traditional bicycles) they wouldn't get a bad rap. It always takes one rotten apple to spoil the bunch. How are they difficult to predict? They've got bright turn signals that indicate where they're going; used much more effectively than cyclists who rarely use their arm signals.
I wish the operator of the eBike a full and speedy recovery.
The brakes, perhaps one of the most important safety devices are pathetic. I wouldn't put those on a kid`s bike. The material and workmanship in the components is probably on par with those of a $199 department store bike and assembled with about as much care and expertise as a part time shelf stockist can muster (FYI, I`m not bashing shelf stockists I`m just saying they typically don`t have the training and mechanical background required to properly assemble a road worthy vehicle).
With all that uncontrollable mass and inertia it scares me when I see those things coming up behind me in the bike lane. As a veteran bike commuter in Toronto I`ve had more near misses by clueless e-bikers in the past year than cars in the past 20.
They need to be categorized properly under the HTA so that they follow the same rigid safety guidelines as other motorized two wheel vehicles.
Tks
Tks
Like with anything on the road, the weakest part is the nut behind the wheel.
I just moved to Toronto... who are the morons that elected a city government that allows bicycles on the sidewalk? Are they the same morons who then turn around and blame people for doing something legal and riding on the sidewalk?
The e-scooter, well.. they are cool, but a real pedelec bicycle like the BionX is the way to go for me..