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Duly Quoted: Heather McDonald (Chair, Toronto Cyclists Union)

By Hamutal Dotan

“I happen to choose to get to work by bike and I would like to be treated like a human being on the street.”
—In an open letter, Heather McDonald, the chair of the bike union’s board of directors, responded to Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North). Councillor Ford was quoted in the Globe yesterday as saying: “If you’re asking would I pay five dollars to get downtown quicker and not knock off 14 bicycle riders on the way down Queen Street, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

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  • tomwest

    Councillor Ford was quoted in the Globe yesterday as saying: “If you’re asking would I pay five dollars to get downtown quicker… I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
    Does that mean Doug Ford supports a London-style congestion charge?

  • http://piorkowski.ca qviri

    Not quite. For the five bucks, he wants a new road dedicated to people with money like him. He wants the hoi polloi to still be able to get downtown for “free”, but with options.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5QE6EGHDRGWO2RVB6VSCJGPEKM Kevin

    Sadly, the open letter is factual, level-headed and rhetoric-free – I'm not sure the mayor and his brother are capable of understanding communication made under such terms.

  • http://twitter.com/erlygrl Sine nomine

    Is he really suggesting that an estimated 14 bicycle riders per day will be endangered otherwise?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=583090534 Rob Drover

    Well, while I agree his verbage was kind of dumb and ignorant sounding, he does make a point.  Heather, as a law-following, safe cyclist, you are in the minority, in my experience. I regularly see cyclists blowing through stop signs and red lights, crosswalks, riding on sidewalks, weaving in between pedestrians. Many years ago, I had some dumbass bike courier jump off the curb on his bike directly in front of my car. I wasn't going terribly fast, about 30kph on Yonge street, midday, so he ws able to jump off the bike, onto my hood and over my roof, getting up uninjured.. His bike went under the car and was pretty substantially mangled. He proceeded to curse me out in very imaginative language, despite the fact that the accident was entirely his fault. It was not an intersection, he had ZERO right-of-way. He was trying to cut directly across Yonge, and didn't bother to signal or look. As he wasn't injured, I was about to leave when he started threatening me with violence and with police involvement. I pulled out my cell phone, and told him “go ahead. Start dialing. I have 50 witnesses here who saw you do something incredibly stupid.” I even wrote down my name and plate number and gave it to him.  He declined to call the police at that time, and to this day, more than 10yrs later, I haven't heard a single thing about it.  THIS is the kind of cyclist that seem to permeate Toronto's core. Hipster douchebags on their fixies, weaving in and out of traffic, hopping curbs, blowing though lights, ignoring the open streetcar doors, slamming into pedestrians causing serious injury. 
    If they were all as safe and law-abiding as you claim to be, Heather, and carried bike-specific insurance and had to be bike-licensed, and register their rides, then I would have no problem sharing the roads with cyclists. Unfortunately, until laws are enforced equally on cyclists as they are on motorists, cyclists are just another traffic hazard to avoid.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=583090534 Rob Drover

    And that's just by himself! Imagine if Sweaty Bob were in a car right behind him!

  • http://piorkowski.ca qviri

    Oh please, enough with the enforcement complaints already! Would you like to address every driver that cuts off pedestrians while turning, every driver that rolls through a stop sign, every driver that speeds, every driver that stops in a no-stopping zone and turns on four-ways, every driver that idles longer than allowed by the idling bylaw, every driver that weaves through lanes in traffic, and every driver that drives by streetcar doors? Last time I saw these behaviours, respectively: today, today, today, yesterday, last week, yesterday, today (506 at St George). Locations: north of Queen, south of Davenport, east of Spadina, west of Church. I don't even want to know what it's like being a pedestrian further north, but I have a feeling I wouldn't mind my neck to be able to 360* when crossing intersections.

    Somehow being licensed and insured doesn't seem to be the critical issue determining law-abidingness of drivers. I'm sure those with broken legs or worse are very much reassured by the fact someone will get charged with dangerous driving and pay more for their insurance in the future!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=583090534 Rob Drover

    I said “enforced equally”, and that's what I meant. If enforcing the HTA on cyclists means more enthusiastic and draconian enforcement on motorists, then that's what should be done. Unfortunately, more and more, I see cyclists riding like asshats, as if the rules don't apply to them because they are not a MOTOR vehicle. Or, they have the attitude like “what're they gonna do, give me a ticket?” because they know law enforcement either a) can't catch them, or b) won't bother. By the same token, I see lots of fellow motorists who drive like absolute idiots, prompting the “wish i was a cop” thought. But, again, cops ignore a lot of stupid behaviour either because they're busy or just can't be bothered.  I know the hyper-liberals will jump on this, but I fully support the idea of cameras at every intersection, on every road and highway.  If every vehicle, motorized or not, had a license plate, the owners of those vehicles could be charged if their vehicle were used in a manner inconsistent with the HTA. I would hope that would prompt people to become better drivers.  I may not be a perfect driver, but I do try to not do stupid maneuvers in my car that interfere with other users of the road. I don't think it's too much to expect the same from other drivers and cyclists.

  • http://piorkowski.ca qviri

    Great! We're in total agreement regarding enforcement then. Just wondering, though: how do you attach a license plate to a tricycle on the neighbourhood cul-de-sac?