Sorry for my typo in the thread title.



It's great to know that this sort of attitude is part of the decision-making process at Toronto city hall.


https://www.thestar.com/News/article/189595


"I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day."

–Rob Ford

Maybe if the city is short on funds, the city can help everyone out and start fining all those drivers that break the law, and not only make money, but save lives as well.

At the end of the day, people die on the streets because drivers get away with breaking traffic law.

I guess the reason this got to me was the duality of us spending hours on here debating the safety impacts of bicycle lanes, road positioning, helmet laws, lime green vests, lights, whatever (none of this is a bad thing) and then some elected official simply says "Roads are for cars, you get killed it's your fault!".

How in god's name can we even begin to address this kind of argument?

The good news is that Rob Ford, along with Case Ooates, have long been largely regarded as background noise at city hall for a long time with these kinds of views. The mayor and most everybody else are at least outwardly strongly in favour of more bicycle use.

And hey, at least he mentioned buses as legit road users.

The mayor of Mississauga, in a similar tirade, just said "cars and trucks".

Man I need a mod to change that header.

Easier to just find out where they live, then run over their kid when he/she is out on the road.

From BOINGBOING.net

Joey "AccordionGuy" deVilla reports on the single dumbest thing I've ever heard of an elected city official saying. Toronto councillor Rob Ford told the Toronto Star: "I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day."

Read more here:
https://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/09...ncillor_d.html

What a tool.

Edit: I think we should email him and suggest that, while he's at it, he should recommend the removal of all sidewalks (who the hell uses those anyway) to make room for another car lane.

And for shoppers in a hurry, he could have the city fund a multilevel "drive-thru" right in the middle of the Eaton Centre.

Some follow-up

https://www.thestar.com/article/189916
https://www.thestar.com/article/189909

Just like **** victims, they were "probably asking for it."

If you ever catch this person crossing a road not a crossing, run him over......

Someone on BoingBoing reports that Joey "AccordionGuy" deVilla says that councillor Rob Ford told the Toronto Star.....

Anyone see a problems here. Hearsay 3 times removed.

I want to see what he said in context. For all we know this was riders riding the wrong way and that city streets badly need repair (in which case his statement about not supporting bike lanes might have continued ... at least not while we have so many streets badly in need of repair.

Or he could be a total idiot.

But I want to judge him on what he said in context.

Ford is crazy. For some context see his wikipedia entry. Its pretty funny. He represents a heavy car commuter community to the west of Toronto. Here is a choice quote from a major national newspaper:

He has a serious reputation for being nasty and having foot-in-mouthitis.

Story where the quote originated, no more context though

https://www.thestar.com/article/189598

lol - I'd forgotten his Leafs game antics - I believe John Barber wrote an article about Ford in the Globe last year.

If you are interested in the city of Toronto's bike plan - their motto is "every street is a cycling street" - which is where most of the councillors are, as opposed to a couple luddites.

Thanks to whichever mod condensed these threads into something coherent after I made it so incoherent.

That wiki article was quite telling.

Reminds me of King Ralph.

Rob Ford told that to the Toronto Star, where Joey "AccordianGuy" deVilla no doubt read it with the rest of us. The Toronto Star doesn't too often report what a blog said a council member said as a direct quote. Mr Ford's statement is complete in it's context, he states his position & gives his admittedly flawed reasoning behind that position. It isn't taken out of context in the least.

What did you expect from a dude named Ford?

Go to the city website, select councillors, select Rob Ford, have a look at the photo, it explains a lot here. Lets just say if Mr Ford were to visit BF, we would probably point him to the Clydesdales forum.

Of course to counteract the Fords and Oates on council we have De Baeremaeker and Giambrone. From a Feb 10, 2007 article in The Star by Peter Gorrie, I quote "Glenn De Baeremaeker cycles 46 kilometres between his east-end home and city hall daily and, a confirmed vegetarian, lives the life of an ecological believer." From a January 6, 2007 article in The Star by Francine Kopun, I quote "New TTC chairman and Ward 18 Councillor [Adam Giambrone], a transit poster boy, doesn't own a car."

It's hard to tell with some councillors, some of the photos are old.....

A few things come to mind:
1. Perhaps he should look at the main problem, and that's cars and trucks. They not only kill a lot of bicyclists, but they kill a lot of fellow drivers.
2. He should see the world. Travel to the Netherlands and Denmark, and see the cycling in those areas.
3. Maybe the city shouldn't build sidewalks either. Doesn't it also put pedestrians close to traffic?

Is this the same City Council that has been killing the recent Light Rail initiatives? Or maybe that was somewhere else?

Here's a pic of the dangerous fool:

(The following is satire):

"I can't support cross walks. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day."


(I changed the words "bike lanes" to "cross walks".)

Phhht.

He's one of those guys you expect to hear a fart from every time they sit down.

Perhaps he'll develop heart disease or diabetes and have to retire from politics.

By the looks of Mr. Ford, I don't imagine the biking communityy in Toronto has much to fear from him. He'll probably drop dead not too many pork chops from now...

I know it was a complete waste of time, but it made me feel better to at least write the following letter that I sent to the moronic councillor just a few moments ago:

Councillor,

I tried to resist the need to write a response to the remarkably illogical, offensive and utterly foolish remarks you made regarding cyclists recently. I really tried. I know, from experience, that people who cling to such ignorance are generally profoundly bull-headed and small-minded and never consider that their idiocy borders on lunacy, so really, I am likely wasting my time.

But on the off-chance you have a brief moment of clarity, I hope to remind you that cyclists are legally recognized as legitimate users of the road, along with motorists in cars, trucks, buses and on motorcycles and scooters. There are almost 1 million cyclists in Toronto and almost a hundred thousand who ride year round. They do not cause or contribute to traffic congestion that costs the city and the businesses that operate in the city millions per day in lost productivity. They do not cause disastrous pile-ups and countless accidents per day. They are not responsible for the billion dollar costs to our health-care facilities, insurance industry or work-force. They do not cause or contribute to the decay and destruction of our environment nor cost the various levels of government millions per day in expended resources. In fact, there is not a single negative impact upon the city or residents of Toronto attributable to bicyclists. That’s right, your eyes are not deceiving you; not one negative impact.

Cycling is cited as one of the best things we can do for our local environment and for the health of our planet by every respected environmental agency and advocate. Cycling REDUCES motor traffic congestion allowing overweight Neanderthals from north Etobicoke or where-ever to lumber their toxic-spewing behemoths downtown because they’re too lazy and full of themselves to ride a bus or train or ride a bike themselves. You should be congratulating them for making your commute faster and safer.

Almost all adult cyclists are tax-paying citizens of this city. Considering it is property taxes that pay for the maintenance of PUBLIC roads, they are as entitled to use those same public roads as prescribed by law and as the regulations permit as any other tax-paying citizen. If, as you assert, roads are for cars, trucks and buses alone, then you must be in favour of exempting home-owners like me who choose not to own a car anymore from property tax or at least receiving a significant reduction. I don’t pay for what I’m not allowed to use, after all. I expect you to table a motion to council to that effect in the near future if you truly believe the foolishness that you utter.

You should know this, but clearly you require reminding: public roads are public spaces. By virtue of requiring a license to operate your motor vehicle upon public roads, you---as a motorist---are a GUEST upon a public space.

Hundreds of cyclists are killed upon roads in Canada every year and, if you check the police records, you will discover few of them were responsible for the accident that provoked their deaths. Aggressive, impatient, distracted, frustrated and reckless motorists are the overwhelming instigators of serious accidents. To suggest anything else is not only ludicrous, but suggests you are unfit to serve this city in any capacity.

I expect you to not only retract your statement, but issue a full public apology, especially to the friends and families of cyclists who were innocent victims of car accidents, whether they died or not. If
you have any integrity, any credibility, any self-accountability you will address the media today and beg the forgiveness of Torontonians. I expect you to be silent, however.


Sincerely,

JL