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Newsstand: January 15, 2015
As of this morning, the cheapest gas in the GTA can be found at an Oshawa Costco location. At 76.9 cents per litre, it is the lowest gas prices have been since the spring of 2009. Enjoy it while it lasts. In the news: One woman is dead following a GO bus rollover, a new survey on cyclist rule-breaking, and several schools receive conditional passes in the latest DineSafe blitz.
A woman is dead following a GO bus rollover on highway 407. Six people were on the bus when the crash happened shortly after 10 p.m. on Wednesday. The bus was travelling from Hamilton to York University when it rolled into the grassy median that divides east- and westbound traffic lanes. Three other people, including the driver of the bus, were taken to hospital with minor injuries. An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.
According to University of Colorado professor Wes Marshall, society tends to be less tolerant of cyclists breaking the rules of the road while still affording leniency to pedestrians and drivers. Marshall explains, “Even if you do something that’s completely legal, like take the lane on your bike, you’re looked at as a rude cyclist. And if you break the law, you’re seen as a criminal.” Now Marshall has launched a survey to learn more about why cyclists break established rules and how this affects people’s perceptions. Marshall says that so far results show that there are some really reckless cyclists, but they are likely in the minority. The average “rule breaker” is moderate and generally does so for safety reasons or for the sake of practicality. Cycle Toronto’s Jared Kolb says that many laws that apply to cars do not necessarily make sense for Toronto cyclists, and adopting new cycling rules of the road, such as a law that allows for cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, could benefit the city. The hope is that the findings of Marshall’s survey could also eventually be used in urban planning decisions for cyclists to create better, safer infrastructure.
A recent round of food safety inspections by the City of Toronto resulted in several schools and childcare programs receiving conditional passes from the DineSafe program. In all, 68 locations had received conditional passes as of Tuesday, including the breakfast program at Don Bosco Catholic secondary school, Bayview Middle School Café and York Mills Collegiate Café for infractions such as failure to thoroughly reheat hazardous food items and lack of separate handwashing sinks. Sylvanus Thompson, head of the DineSafe program, explains that parents should still feel safe sending their children to eat at school even if it receives a conditional pass, saying food-borne illness is very unlikely in those conditions. One restaurant was shut down in this latest round of inspections. The Wellesley Street West location of Middle Eastern takeout chain Ali Baba’s was closed on January 8 for multiple violations, including failure to prevent rodent infestation and not properly washing surfaces.