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This was Toronto’s downtown at 10:30 a.m. yesterday, as seen from Lakeshore Boulevard near the Canadian Exhibition Grounds. Air Quality Ontario’s Air Quality Index measured a daytime high of 54, which put Toronto’s air well into the “Poor” category. The day before, the AQI hit 59.
What to do? I ran errands on my bike yesterday, passing bumper-to-bumper car traffic everywhere I cycled. When I started cycling Toronto’s streets fifteen years ago, I didn’t see as many cars as I do today, and I certainly didn't see as many Sport Utility Vehicles. Why are SUVs necessary within a city? For what off-roading purposes? Some parents might rationalize that they require extra space for children, or that they feel safer—but with their high emissions, they could be making their kids’ futures more dangerous than we might ever imagine. For an opposing view, check out The National Post’s "Education or indoctrination?," which reminds me of Al Gore's statistic from An Inconvenient Truth, about 53% of articles in the popular press doubting the cause of global warming, while 0% of those in peer-reviewed scientific journals had the same conundrum.
If we’re already having smog alerts in May, and 14% of Canadians are obese and therefore more likely to stress the healthcare system, why not ride a bicycle? Replacing your car with a bike is one of the happiest ways to drop a few pounds (believe me on this: I once weighed in at 210!). SUVs only belong in their proper environment—rural settings.
Scientists are also discovering that caring for the planet and other people raises our own levels of joy, and that happy people are healthiest. Environmentalism isn’t just all sustainable seriousness. To experience urban life without cars—to dance, play, and make music with your neighbours in the streets—visit tomorrow’s Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market. It’s fun, and it feels good!
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As someone who drives a small SUV, a Ford Escape (albeit not very often; it's my dad's and he has it for navigating the roads up at the cottage); bikes; takes public transportation; and walks, I see the merits of every mode. As someone who's switched from taking the TTC to biking to work this summer, though, I can't believe I didn't do it sooner. It takes me the exact same amount of time to get downtown if I bike than it would if I took my normal TTC route.
I think we've got to acknowledge that people will continue to choose what mode fits them best. Everyone explains their preferred transportation choice differently: it could be cost, convenience, health, speed, environmental impact, etc. It's not easy to convince someone who drives that they should start biking instead.
speaking as someone who doesn't own a car, rollerblades everywhere and takes the ttc everyday, i can honestly understand why some people drive.
i lived in oakville last summer and had to take the go train anywhere. at $200 for a monthly pass that was only good between oakville and toronto. i walked over to queen and bathurst to get to work to save an extra $100 on a ttc pass. i also walked 25 mins to the oakville go station twice a day to save money. for people who drive in from the gta, it's no wonder they drive...if i ever moved to the gta again, i'd buy a car as well.
I love biking, but man, the amount of times I nearly get run over every single time I ride downtown keeps me from using my two-wheeler in the downtown core. It's a fucking suicide run every time.
Phototendo:
Toronto is actually a safe place to ride. It is far from being fucking suicide. I commute to work every day, and I have no clue what you are on about.
You may be biking too near the curb. I find if you move out a bit and go a bit faster that you get much more respect.
You do understand that Toronto's smog comes from the U.S. coal plants in Ohio, right?
www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/11/05/loc_powerplants05.html
Toronto only has smog problems when the wind is from the south or southwest.
Of course, SUVs are part of the problem. But Toronto's SUVs cause smog problems elsewhere. Toronto's smog problem is due almost entirely to Ohio coal plants, and if Toronto went car-free tomorrow, the city would still have a permanent smog problem. To the extent that you want to solve Toronto's air quality problems, you need to agitate for changes in Ohio.
The key to happy biking for me is to take side streets whenever possible and avoid car traffic. It's a beautiful way to see the city, and in the warm months, you have the shade of the trees. It's great fun--it's just not a good thing to do! This was the point I was trying to make.
Through marketing, car companies have made SUV's the ultimate in safety, sexiness, and the big sell, "freedom." Commercials show SUV's on lonely roads and mountain tops, which are not usually found in cities. Many people have fallen for it.
Air pollution comes from: combustion-fired power plants, emissions from motor vehicles, oil refining, chemicals used in farming, fumes from paint, hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and other solvents, landfills, which generate methane, military uses, such as nuclear weapons, toxic gases, germ warfare and rocketry. And other sources.
Yes, Ohio is a nasty offender (believe me: I used to live there), but we're still burning coal in Ontario too. I'd love to be able to blame absolutely everything on Ohio.
My parents had a Jeep Cherokee when I was a teenager. They got rid of it because it sucked gas so quickly. I own an energy-efficient car that I drive maybe twice each month: not many people even know I can drive, because I almost always bike, walk, or take the TTC. It's a choice, yes, but in making choices, you must remember that you are not the only person on the planet. I hope people would make responsible choices. I don't think it's easy to convince people to bike, but I certainly think I can try. It's not very radical: afterall, the city tries (sort of):
http://www.toronto.ca/health/2020/ontheroad.htm
Yesterday, I was talking to a poet (locking his bike) who is ten years older than me. We were on Bloor Street in The Annex. The car traffic was bumper-to-bumper, and moving slowly. He has lived in the city longer than me, and un-prompted, expressed his astonishment at the number of cars crawling along.
Last week, I was cycling along Unwin Avenue and some dork and his buddies were "offroading" through a muddy construction ditch in his apparently brand-new Toyota FJ Cruiser. The heavens opened up with the Hallelujah Chorus when the show-off broke his axle and the vehicle listed and lodged in the mud, completely disabled.
Contrary to the commercials, most SUVs are not built for offroading. I also like how the SUV commercials show them whipping around desolate mountain roads, when most mountain roads are often barely wide enough to accommodate a Yaris going one way.
That National Post op-ed isn't worth the attention drawn to it, and it probably does more harm than good to give it a link.
The points made are so flimsy as to be embarrassing to any journalistic reputation that the Post might have. When a member of the Vanier Institute of the Family is called to debate environmental policy and social justice issues then we know the arguments are bankrupt, and I wonder what the hell the editors were thinking running that piece.
I'd like to bike, but I'm incredibly nervous about the dangers of the road. If it were possible for someone more experienced to bike-pool with me until I got my confidence, that would be great.
dngm - The Post is the last place to look for journalistic integrity. Any CanWest mouthpiece is, really. Their editors are only permitted to push the usual conservative issues and skew them in the usual ways.
As for smog days... This weekend I took a trip to the countryside, to a small town called 부여 (Buyeo). On the return to Seoul you could barely tell where the horizon was supposed to be. The sky was a greyish-yellow at noon. Some of that is from the Yellow Dust coming from China, but Seoul is in a valley so plenty of that is homegrown smog. My eyes actually became bloodshot from the debris coming in through the windows of the tiny a/c-less car. I wouldn't even want to guess what the AQI rating might have been.
You're in luck, Gloria! Bike Week started today:
wx.toronto.ca/inter/plan/bikeweekreg.nsf/Calendar?OpenView
I hope you can find a friendly welcome to cycling in the city. Spacing Wire is featuring city cyclists right now, and asking their advice for new cyclists.
rek: one of my friends taught English in Seoul, and reported the same conditions. You have my sympathies! I'm from Sarnia, Ontario ("Chemical Valley") and my problems with allergies actually lessened upon moving to Toronto : )