I received a request from a York University graduate student conducting research on Critical Mass to post the following announcement. If you are interested in getting involved contact him as explained in his announcement quoted below.

A graduate student at York University is conducting some research on the experience of critical mass in Toronto. He is conducting a survey and is hoping for your input. The survey is part of a case study and is completely anonymous and confidential. If you can spare three to five minutes, just go to: Critical Mass Survey

If you would like more information about the research, please contact Andrew Bieler at bielerandrew@yahoo.com.

At its April 9th 2008 meeting the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) will consider a motion being put forward by Councillor A. A. Heaps Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest, the Chair of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee that aims to improve bicycle parking at city owned facillities. His motion contains three recommendations

1. That managers of all City agencies, boards and commissions be requested to include secure long-term bicycle parking facilities in the design and construction or rehabilitation of all publicly-owned City facilities.
2. That the Chief General Manager of the TTC be requested to include secure long-term bicycle parking facilities in the design and construction phases of all current and future TTC stations, including Victoria Park, Pape and Kipling Stations.
3. That all new long-term bicycle parking facilities implemented in City-owned facilities be constructed according to City standards and guidelines for high quality bicycle parking facilities in new developments.

The motion aims not only to increase the quantity of parking spaces but also recommends that the parking facilities created move toward secure bike storage facilities. You can read the full motion here PW 14.14 Indoor Bicycle Parking Facilities For Agencies Boards and Commissions

This is an important step in implementing the Bicycle Parking portion of the Toronto Bike Plan. The City of Toronto has to lead in providing cycling facilities that will encourage more people to use their bikes to access City of Toronto programs in services. It should set an example for the private sector and other elements of the public sector. If these recommendations are passed and carried out it will go a long way to doing this.

If you want to add your support to this you can contact the PWIC and its members. You can get all of the contact information at the following link Public Works and Infrastructure Committee or email them at pwic@toronto.ca.

The Centre for Environment and Innis College present the annual Douglas Pimlott Memorial Lecture, dedicated to the memory of Professor Douglas Pimlott, the first Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Innis College, and an outstanding environmentalist and scholar.

Gil Penalosa

In addition to the lecture, the winners of the Douglas Pimlott and the Robert Hunter Environmental Scholarships will be recognized. Robert Hunter was a Canadian environmentalist, journalist, author and co-founder of Greenpeace.

Free Admission. For more information, please contact Emma Thacker, Program Development and External Relations Assistant, Centre for Environment (em.thacker@utoronto.ca, 416.946.5403)

Wednesday, March 26
University of Toronto, Innis Town Hall
2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto

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I got the following announcement from SmartLiving St. Lawrence regarding their Bike Week Event, a forum to discuss how people can get involved in local cycling issues. Details of the event are quoted below.

2nd Annual smartliving St. Lawrence Bike Week Forum

Thursday, May 31, 2007 - 7-9pm
SL Recreation Centre - 230 The Esplanade
Admission is free

Do you want to learn more about cycling activities in your community? How about new bike lanes for your daily commute? Interested in setting up a Bicycle User Group or an Urban Mobility Hub?

Join us on Thursday night to learn more about the ways you can get involved in local cycling issues and to have your voice heard. From presentations by community leaders to an interactive Q&A session, the 2nd Annual smartliving St. Lawrence Bike Week Forum is the place to be to find out how to make Toronto a greener, healthier and more cycle-friendly city.

Guest panelists include:

Desmond Cole,
Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (www.torontocat.ca)

Daniel Egan,
Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure, City of Toronto
(http://www.toronto.ca/cycling)

Briana Illingworth,
Moving The Economy (www.movingtheeconomy.ca)

Gil Penalosa,
Walk and Bike for Life (www.walkandbikeforlife.ca)

For more information, call 416.488.3966 or email ben(a)smartliving.ca(replace (a) with @ in email program)

smartliving St. Lawrence is an award-winning program of Eneract and the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association. Together, we are working with local residents, businesses and community organizations to foster a greener environment, a healthier community and a stronger local economy. Find out more at

Ben Marans
Project Coordinator, smartliving St. Lawrence

The local call in program Goldhawk Live will focus on cycling tonight from 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm on Rogers Television's local cable channel on channel 10. The guests on the program will be Councillor Adrian Heaps - Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest, recently appointed as the Councillor representative to the Toronto Cycling Committee, and Ron Fletcher, the President of the Toronto Bicycling Network (TBN) who is TBN's new representative to the Toronto Cycling Committee.

This is a phone in show so you can call in to ask the guests about plans to get the Toronto Bike Plan on track in terms of cycling infrastructure and cycling programs. The phone number for the phone in portion is 1-800-968-7863. This will be the first chance to hear Councillor Heaps' plans for spearheading the push to improve the cycling in Toronto so it should be an interesting show.

Currently travelling to Toronto on a ship from the Netherlands is a vehicle that is billed as the Zero Emission S.U.V. This however is a person powered people and cargo mover, not a bio/eco/fuel powered pseudo-tank in the form of the S.U.Vs that currently roam Toronto's core and suburbia. An Amsterdam couple is bringing one of their cargo bikes over to Canada to demonstrate it here in Toronto for the month of May, with hopes of importing a line of cargo bikes here for sale in the near future.

Anandamayii is pictured here riding the cargo-bike in Vondelpark, Amsterdam. In it is her daughter Alisha, her son Mishka and his friend Noah. This is the bike she will be riding around Toronto in the month of May. If you see her on the bike she said you are welcome to ask to test drive it.

This is an initiative of Anandamayii Czerwinski of the Netherlands and her Candian partner Michael Lorincz who have been users of these cargo bikes in the Netherlands and now see an opportunity to bring them to Canada. Anandamayii describes how she got to the point of being a bike retailer. "I started out as a very enthusiastic customer. I rode a 2 wheel cargo bike and had it painted by a friend of mine (see picture below). I have always felt a deep connection to the company and their owners and always have given my feedback in order to make a great product even better." They are moving with their two children and will start the business here from scratch. Once they are here they will start looking for investors or retailers that they can work with. Their plan has the support of the manufacturer of the bikes "Fietsfabriek" www.fietsfabriek.nl. ...(more)

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) is advertising for a project coordinator to assist with the organization's efforts to develop a focused, strategic action plan to secure City commitment for a continuous and safe active transportation network in Toronto. The job posting with all the details regarding duties, hours of work and compensation is available at the following web page.TCAT Project Coordinator Required.

A brief decription of the goals of TCAT are found on its About TCAT page.

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) was formed in 2006 to give a unified voice to the many groups working for a better cycling and pedestrian environment in Toronto. The TCAT plan for active transportation emerged out of consultation with environmental, health and transportation groups from across Toronto. The result is a practical yet visionary plan for how Toronto City Council can make active transportation a central part of transportation planning.

The application deadline for the position is 12:00 pm on Monday, April 23, 2007.

The City of Toronto faced with a budget crunch is looking for new ways to raise revenues. The City of Toronto Act has given the city the power to raise various taxes that would help it balance its budget, but the Mayor and Councillors have been reluctant to propose any new taxes. Advertising has been a popular way for the city to raise money but with the insides and outsides of Toronto's buses already plastered with ads, with posters and video advertising lining the subway stations, the space on Toronto's street furniture up for sale as part of the new Coordinated Street Furniture initiative what space is left to sell? Are traffic signals the answer?

Will video ads on Traffic signals be coming soon?

A proposal to install LCD video screens in Pedestrian crosswalk signals, or ped-heads as they are called by transportation staff, to play ads seems foolish but is that the next place we will see advertising?

"Toronto is currently installing countdown timers in the ped-heads that let people know how long they have to cross the street," said Ms. Duper, a spokesperson for this project, "why can't they also tell you where you can buy your next cup of coffee?" She points to the huge potential market for this next advertising frontier. "Think of the thousands of people who stand at intersections watching the hand waiting for it to change. Those are precious seconds wasted that could be used for watching advertising. That is a huge untapped market". The countdown timers use LED's to show the changing numbers. The cost of LCD display panels is plummeting which could make this project financially feasible.

There are no indications that the Mayor is going to pull this out of the hat as a way to solve the city's budget woes, however, there are no consultations planned on traffic signal advertising so a cynical City Hall watcher might suspect it is a done deal. The project spokesperson Ms. Duper says that she would like to have consultations once the LCD panels are installed to ask people questions such as "Is the volume too loud?" or "Should the e-terminals on the ped-heads be touch screens to allow pedestrians to make on-line purchases?" They would also should be asked if the project should proceed to phase two, replacing the standard red yellow and green signal lights with 52 inch plasma displays that will display video ads along with images of the traffic signal. "A significant portion of the display will still show an image of the changing stoplights, as long as that doesn't detract from the appearance of the ads."

Ms. Duper added that those who might be opposed should consider the revenues that the city will raise and the fact that 25% of the advertising time would be dedicated to public service advertising. There is no confirmation to the rumor that that the city is planning to use that free air time to run ads for its 'One Cent NOW!' campaign at every street corner of the city in a last ditch effort to show the federal government how desperate Toronto is to get a secure source of revenue.

25% of advertising time would be reserved for Public Service Announcements.

The four finalists for the Nathan Phillips Square redesign have been chosen and their designs are now on display in the Rotunda of City Hall at 100 Queen Street West. You can see them and make comments until February 26th, 2007. Information on the competition, the display and the finalists are available on the City of Toronto's website Nathan Phillips Square Design Competition. On the city website there are brief descriptions of the plans on the selected pictures in their Online Exhibition.

The Design by Plant Architects features a glass entry Pavillion at the lower right of this picture facing Queen St. near Bay St. It is the entrance to facillities for cyclists. (click the photo to go to the web site with the larger photo.)

The online displays did not have a lot of detail so I went down to see the displays last friday to see if bikes had been incorporated into the designs. I was pleased to find that two of the designs had incorporated bike facilities, the designs by Plant Architect Inc., referred to as design A and the designs by Baird Sampson Neurt Architects, referred to as Design C.

The one that stood out to me was The Plant Architect Design. Bikes were front and centre, literally. ...(more)

Smart Commute North Toronto Vaughan are hosting an event to celebrate cycling at York University on October 12, 2006. Smartcommute NTV is the first Transportation Management Association founded in Ontario. It describes itself on its website as "a public-private partnership that endeavours to find alternatives to single occupancy vehicle trips and raise awareness of 'Smart Commuting'."

Promoting cycling is one of the activities that it engages in. The details on an event to do that are quoted below from the announcement that they have sent out.

Celebrate Cycling at York U
Join us for the Annual Smart Commute NTV Bike Event

When: October 12th, 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM

Where: Outside, East of the William Small Centre

What: Connect with cycling enthusiasts while enjoying a complimentary lunch from Great Canadian Bagel York Lanes.

At this year's bike event:

• Win GREAT PRIZES - RSVP to WIN a Mountain Equipment Co-op or Cyclepath gift certificate.
• FREE Food - Great Canadian Bagel York Lanes will provide complimentary lunch.
• FREE Bike Tune-ups, General Repairs and Advice from a Cyclepath bike mechanic
• Bike Tour of Campus

If you are planning to attend and haven't already, please RSVP to mcgurran(at)SmartCommuteNTV.ca (so we have enough food!). You will be entered into a Prize-Draw to take place at 12:30 PM.
Those who do not RSVP are certainly still encouraged to attend!

This is a good opportunity for those in North York to get out and show their support for cycling and the work of Smart Commute NTV.

Looking for volunteer cyclists!

We are looking for cyclists to support an important Dignitas International event taking place at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto this August: The Race for Dignity - a 65-hour bike- a-thon, 1 hour for every million people infected with HIV (25 million have died at the hands of the pandemic). **Cyclists are not required to cycle for the full 65 hours. They sign up as individuals or teams for shorter time slots based on their availability. This event is geared towards public engagement and fundraising for Dignitas' groundbreaking community-based care model for HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

Dignitas International is a Canadian medical humanitarian organization working with communities to dramatically increase access to life-saving treatment and prevention in areas overwhelmed by HIV/ AIDS. Dignitas is currently treating patients in Zomba District, Malawi.

Please see details below:

WHO: Dignitas International supporters, Special guests (including sports figures and politicians), Cyclists like YOU!
WHAT: 65-hour stationary bike-a-thon: 1 hr for every million people infected with HIV (of which 25 million have died)
WHERE: Dundas Square (Yonge & Dundas) in downtown Toronto.
WHEN: Mon, Aug 14th, 2006 at 7pm to Thurs, Aug 17th at noon.**
WHY: Raise awareness and funds about HIV/AIDS and Dignitas' groundbreaking community-based care model.
HOW TO REGISTER: Registration and Pledge information are available on-line at Dignitas International

On Monday August 8th, Jack Layton, Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada an MP for Toronto Danforth will be giving the Tooker Gomberg Memorial Lecture on August 8th, 2006. The topic will be on Bicycles and Urban Health. The details are in the announcement from www.greenspiration.org which I have quoted below.

Tuesday August 8, 2006
12:30 - 1:30 PM

Topic: "Bicycles and Urban Health"

A lecture in memory of Tooker Gomberg

Speaker: Hon. Jack Layton,
Climate Change and Energy Critic

Paul Marshall Lecture Theatre
Ground Floor, Queen Wing
St. Michael's Hospital
Queen Street (at Bond), Toronto

This lecture is part of St. Michael Hospital's Clinical Epidemiology rounds. You can learn more about Tooker Gomberg at the Greenspiration website which features " Eulogies for Tooker and Stories for a healthy mind, body and planet".