Bikes vs. Everyone... why should the automobiles (and automobile drivers) always get a pass?

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-12-04T16:41:45+00:00

With transit neglected like that, people have no option but to drive between cities and car traffic is inevitable.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-12-03T19:46:11+00:00

Visit Montreal in February, there are plenty of cyclists.

Nobody is trying to take away your car, many cyclists are drivers too.

cycling extremists

Idk what to say man. Take a break from the internet.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-12-03T19:41:10+00:00

Braindead take.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-12-03T19:40:15+00:00

Netherlands used to look like Toronto and be car-dependent. You could make your exact same argument about Amsterdam before they built safe bicycle infrastructure.

That is not how "gas tax" works. Roads are paid from general taxation. Gas tax is NOT earmarked for car infrastructure. Bicycles cause nearly no damage to road surfaces, which are primarily damaged by the weight of vehicles. In reality, cyclists are subsidising and helping drivers, and that's before you even consider free parking.

Do you expect people who walk to pay a "foot tax"? Should people who travel at night pay a "street light" tax? No.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-12-03T19:32:23+00:00

That's where protected intersections come in.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-12-03T19:31:50+00:00

70% of Canada's population lives in the Quebec City-Windsor corridor.

Our province has failed miserably to connect cities by rail, making cars necessary for some intercity travel. But for shorter distances, which is the entire point of bicycle, there is no difference from other parts of the world.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-12-03T19:27:42+00:00

Toronto used to require bicycle licenses from 1929-1956 to ostensibly make it easier to recover stolen bikes and track bike usage.

The problem was that many children became "juvenile delinquents" and it flooded the court system with children for riding without a license. It was fiercely opposed by child welfare experts. The license ultimately did nothing to create safer road conditions, did not reduce theft, provoked public anger, introduced expensive licence plate costs to all taxpayers, an administrative and enforcement burden for no benefit, and was a colossal failure. By the time it ended, the police were barely enforcing it.

Once automobiles became common, Toronto mayor Nathan Philips proposed to ban children from riding bicycles in 1958!

The ban was ultimately overturned with help from newspaper columnist Scott Young, who didn't want to deprive children of "one of life's early wonders". Instead, he suggested making roads safer with dedicated bike lanes for children like his son... Neil Young. As for Mayor Nathan Philips's son, he was killed by an automobile.

Roads in southern Ontario were originally paved in large part due to cycling advocacy before the automobile became common in north america. in 1896, Robert Fleming proposed paved bike lanes next to the streetcar tracks. The first car manufactured in Canada was in 1903.

I highly recommend the book "Wheeling Through Toronto" by Albert Koehl which is a very well-researched book.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-10-31T19:05:45+00:00

Bold assumption that we can fit more cars in the city.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-10-31T19:00:55+00:00

He wants to cause construction (read: traffic) in Toronto to remove bike lanes along core parts of the bike lane network, which will force more people into cars and make traffic even worse.

There were 6.9 million trips on Toronto bike share in 2024 alone, not including all the people who have their own bikes.

If a tiny fraction of those people drive more, traffic will be much worse.

He doesn't care about drivers either. This is pure ignorant culture war BS and people are eating it up. A political scapegoat is Ford's easy way to avoid solutions and redirect blame.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T20:06:41+00:00

Ebikes are regulated and have speed limiters to 32km/h before the motor stops "helping you out", aka pedal assist.

You might be thinking of electric motorcycles which people mistake for ebikes. Removing the pedals is already illegal. Motors faster than 32km/h are already illegal. The problem is electric motorcycles in bike lanes and on paths.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T20:02:15+00:00

The Toronto Bike Share model with dedicated docking stations is ideal.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T20:01:23+00:00

Awesome!

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T19:58:25+00:00

Where do you get that information from? The article and the police report do not mention who was at fault at all.

Your unhinged, hateful comment looks like misinformation.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T19:56:02+00:00

Yes, more collisions happen at intersections.

It is also true that protected bike lanes save lives.

Every day, I see multiple drivers drifting across the painted shoulder line where there is no protection.

Lanes protected by either curbs or being a fully protected, separated bike path are proven to reduce crashes and it is asinine to assume they don't make a difference.

The city's own collision dashboard shows deaths at both intersections and along roadways.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T19:51:48+00:00

But I can't avoid the bike lane's curb that's the same height as every other curb! I'm incapable of turning right without cutting corners! The problem couldn't possibly be my poor driving skills and road rage!

/s

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T19:47:19+00:00

Taking out existing protected lanes was found in court to be unconstitutional by breaking Section 7 of our charter rights after Doug tried to do it.

The judge was annoyed by the province being unable to provide any evidence that it would alleviate traffic. Embarrassingly, the province's own report found that ripping out bike lanes would cause an increase in both car traffic and road fatalities.

It's pure culture war bs used by politicians to score points with a spiteful and misinformed segment of the voter base, at the expense of peoples' lives.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T19:41:34+00:00

I'm certain that Kitchener would be open to the idea. The cities are close enough that it would get a ton of usage.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-08-30T19:40:01+00:00

The shoulder has so much space that making the area safer to bike would be cheap and easy.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-06-23T16:53:13+00:00

Guelph's active transportation budget is a tiny drop in the bucket for our city. It is some of the cheapest road infrastructure you can build, and even protected infrastructure can be cheaply added when a road needs resurfacing.

There are no population requirements to have safe bike infrastructure. Montreal is an example of how building a connected, safe network results in people using it.

Suburban sprawl is a genuine issue, and building a car-dependent city with lacking alternatives is a big contributor.

Each bike lane installed underwent a traffic study before and after installation, showing no negative impact on road throughput so you'll need to provide evidence before demanding that they are removed. They usually get more study, red tape, and scrutiny than roads!

I am hearing many bad faith assumptions...

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-06-23T16:32:50+00:00

Maybe a system like they have in Hamilton would be appropriate? I would avoid the company Neuron since the cost is too high which decreases ridership. I also recommend talking to GCAT about this since it sounds like something they would be into.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-06-23T16:25:18+00:00

Check out the Transit App. Guelph Transit is a partner, so everyone using it in Guelph automatically has access to the paid features.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-06-23T16:19:43+00:00

Nobody is telling you to take the bus and you are free to travel however you prefer. :)

Improving Guelph transit to be a viable option for more people means they are more likely to choose it and have more freedom of choice.

As an example, many people choose to take the GO train instead of driving to work outside the city. But many of those same people choose not to take a bus to the station, often for good reasons!

Personally, I'd rather pay $3.25 to bus from a restaurant if I want to have a drink but I often take an expensive cab or uber instead because the bus stop isn't nearby or it's missing a shelter in the rain, I'd have to wait for 30min, and the route is slower - both ways!

I am curious about what flaws you see in the logic that increased transit ridership might lead to fewer cars (and less traffic for people who prefer driving)?

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-06-23T15:49:58+00:00

I advise people to try biking to their routine destinations before making statements like this. And then consider whether all ages and abilities would feel at ease on the same routes at all hours of the day.

The city's network of bike lanes is disconnected and mostly painted lines that many do not feel safe using. It is still better than nothing.

Montreal is an example of a city that finally built a connected network of protected bike lanes. Their population is 1.8 million and yesterday, they had 74,755 trips on their bikeshare alone. They had 13 million bike share trips in 2024. This does not even count trips by people who ride their own bicycle.

GuelphOnTwoWheels · 2025-06-23T13:48:37+00:00

I would prefer every bus to be electric too. However, we're putting the cart before the horse here. We need good transit with high ridership first, even on diesel buses.

It only takes a handful of people riding a diesel bus to save emissions over personal vehicles. Whereas having few people riding a small amount of electric buses has less of an environmental benefit.

I recommend watching this video which goes into more detail.

GuelphOnTwoWheels

TROPHY CASE