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Toronto is far from a "rust-belt" city. The Economist ranked it as the #1 place to live in the entire world in 2015.

Toronto, the city that is the subject of this article, is one such city. Anti-noise bylaw prohibits repairing vehicles in residential areas. Here's the bylaw. Go to page 8, item 9. Vehicle repairs are prohibited in residential areas at all times.

> (We wound up taking down our trees for unrelated reasons - one was
> dead and the second dropped berries all over our lawn rendering our
> back yard unusable and attracting flies.)

Just be thankful you don't live in Toronto. See http://www.toronto.ca/311/know... Even removing a *DEAD* tree will cost you several hundred dollars for the paperwork+approval alone...

> Private tree permit exemptions
>
> A tree that is dead, terminally diseased or imminently hazardous does
> not require a permit, however the applicant must send a detailed Arborist report
> and receive approval from Urban Forestry before proceeding with any tree work.

The cost of a contractor to cut down+remove the tree+stump is additional. An "Arborist" is a licenced professional "tree doctor" with an applicable university degree. Their reports are equivalant to an MD's "medical opinion", and their fees are equivalant to having a medical specialist examine you without medical insurance. And in case you're wondering...

> Fines for illegal tree removal
>
> A person convicted of an offence under City of Toronto Municipal
> Code Chapter 813, Article III is subject to a minimum fine of $500.00
> and a maximum fine of $100,000.00 per tree involved in an offense;
> a special supplementary fine of $100,000.00 is also possible.

No problem!

To be clear, I wasn't criticizing your comments, just that study. I see it bandied about all the time by anti-helmet zealots, and few of them bother actually assessing it's merits, so it's become kind of a pet peeve for me :P

I've never owned a car and have been commuting by bike for 20+ years myself and I always wear a helmet. I've never done cross-country or long-distance biking, so I can't speak to that, but even just cycling in-city, I wouldn't wear a helmet if I didn't have to. They're hot, constricting and the straps chafe, but as you say, the benefits outweigh the annoyances, my brain is the most expensive thing I own! If there were any reliable empirical data showing that helmets are less safe, I would ditch mine in an instant.

I'm not sure about the overtaking thing though, in this study by the City of Toronto: http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/publications/bicycle_motor-vehicle/ "Motorist Overtaking" was the second most frequent cause of bike-car accidents (accounting for about ~12%), right after "Drive Out At Controlled Intersection" (by motorists - for cyclists it's called "Ride Out At Controlled Intersection"). I've seen stats for other major cities that corroborate the general finding (motorist behaviour causes the vast majority of incidents), but of course the specifics of types of incidents may vary by region.

Motorists are more reckless and dangerous than cyclists.

In pretty much every study conducted on bike-car accidents, the majority of them have been caused by motorists breaking the law, not cyclists. In Toronto, it's something like ~83% of bike-car collisions were the fault of the motorist,, not the cyclist. You can see that data here:

http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/publications/bicycle_motor-vehicle/

The basic results have been replicated in many other cities as well. IIRC in NYC it was even worse, with like 90%+ bike-car accidents being caused by motorists...

That's odd, because after reading the report, it's clear that the researchers were focused on understanding bike-car accidents and in preventing future ones, not in determining who was at fault. But don't take my word for it, read the study! "Although they may refer to the actions of only one party, these labels are not intended to assign fault." (Emphasis mine.) Or, "Thus it cannot be said, for instance, that more cyclists than motorists caused collisions by disobeying traffic control."

On the other hand, why should I be surprised that a cyclist doesn't bother to read the study they referenced, or that they automatically assume they're right regardless of what's actually in front of them? Such behavior matches perfectly with my observed actions of cyclists on the road!

...effectively the injury/death rate is mostly effected by poor decisions by the cyclist, not the car.

This is incorrect. In any study regarding bike-car collisions I have seen, the overwhelming majority of them are caused by motorist negligence. Take a look at this study by the City of Toronto based on police reports:

http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/publications/bicycle_motor-vehicle/

It shows something like @83% of bike-car collisions were caused by the motorist, not the cyclist. This basic finding has been replicated in many other cities as well. I can't find the link at the moment, but IIRC it was like 90%+ caused by motorists in NYC.

Motorists are more reckless and dangerous than cyclists.

In pretty much every study conducted on bike-car accidents, the majority of them have been caused by motorists breaking the law, not cyclists. In Toronto, it's something like ~83% of bike-car collisions were the fault of the motorist, not the cyclist. You can see that data here:

http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/publications/bicycle_motor-vehicle/

The basic results have been replicated in many other cities as well. IIRC in NYC it was even worse, with like 90%+ bike-car accidents being caused by motorists...

Actually, the majority of collisions between cars and bikes are because the motorist was not following the law, not the cyclist.

Here's some data from the City of Toronto pulled from police collision reports. Something like ~83% of bike-car collisions were found to be because of driver negligence:

http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/publications/bicycle_motor-vehicle/

The same basic findings have been replicated in many other cities (you can find the data online). IIRC it was even worse in NYC, with motorists being the cause of 90%+ bike-car collisions.

1) require a drivers license to cycle on city streets

This has been attempted several times in Toronto and rejected because of children and enforcement. http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/safety/licensing/history.htm

4) enforce #1, #2 and #3 as aggressivley with cyclists as with automobiles, with the same penalties

I agree. The reality is that there is not enough money and therefore enforcement is rare. Living in the city, I may see a cop once a week and the chance that they are watching for traffic violations is slim.

if you are indoors you probably know where you are

Let me introduce you to the Great White North:

PATH is downtown Toronto's underground walkway linking 28 kilometres of shopping, services and entertainment.

PATH facts:

According to Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex with 29 km (18 miles) of shopping arcades. It has 371,600 sq. metres (4 million sq. ft) of retail space. In fact, the retail space connected to PATH rivals the West Edmonton Mall in size.

The approximate 1,200 shops and services, such as photocopy shops and shoe repairs, found in PATH, employ about 5,000 people. Once a year, businesses in PATH host the world's largest underground sidewalk sale.

More than 50 buildings/office towers are connected through PATH. Twenty parking garages, five subway stations, two major department stores, six major hotels, and a railway terminal are also accessible through PATH. It also provides links to some of Toronto's major tourist and entertainment attractions such as: the Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thomson Hall, Air Canada Centre, Rogers Centre, and the CN Tower. City Hall and Metro Hall are also connected through PATH.

There are more than 125 grade level access points and 60 decision points where a pedestrian has to decide between turning left or right, or continuing straight on. The average size of a connecting link is 20 metres (66 ft.) long by 6 metres (20 ft.) wide.

Signage includes a symbol for people with disabilities whenever there is a flight of stairs ahead.

PATH Facts

I used to live in Toronto and they had a program where paper and meat could be composted, along with a whole bunch of other surprising things. Worth looking at the list http://www.toronto.ca/greenbin/card.htm

The compost all went into a small bin and the smell was pretty minimal: It fills up really fast, and the mould and bacteria get to work right away. Where I live now there is no municipal composting and my garbage can stinks all the time (it's amazing how bad a chicken bone can smell).

Toronto has a snow melter as part of it's fleet of snow clearing equipment. See http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/snow/torontomelt.htm

Toronto has such a machine: http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/snow/torontomelt.htm

Toronto already uses deep water cooling to cool buildings in the downtown area. It's popular method. So long as the lake is sufficiently bigger (in terms of heat capacity) than what is being cooled, there is almost no noticeable effect on the lake.

Every year Toronto's debt goes up, and every year Toronto property taxes go up, and every few years Toronto's unions go on strike to have their already large salaries increased. Maybe once the city can control its finances and its unions, then it can think about buying video games to attract children to the Library.

What is so special about this?

Toronto has been using water from lake Ontario to cool the downtown core for years.

Well, this is the throwing the cat game - the reality is that because of the inflated immigration from the South and East Asia which accounts in Toronto already for more than 50% of its inhabitants hearing and expecting good English is not realistic anymore. The traditional Canadian culture has sunk under a Bollywood mist - and, its going to get to the level where the standard spoken English will be in fact the South-Asian dialect/variant. Just as simple as that http://www.toronto.ca/immigration/message_imm.htm

Biking on the sidewalk is actually statistically likely to lead to a higher rate of collision http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/publications/bicycle_motor-vehicle/index.htm

Since we are on the subject, Toronto did something similar at a larger scale:

http://www.toronto.ca/environment/initiatives/cooling.htm

The point of the heat in a dishwasher is to sterilze with heat rather than, say, chlorine.

However, from the data I've seen, dishwashers use about the same power as an electric iron, coffee maker, or electric hairdryer. So I don't know where you get your ideas about them.

Torontonians..just for future reference...
http://www.toronto.ca/toronto_facts/famous_arts_en tertainers.htm (title of the page)

So easy to blame Toronto in all this, but what about the business in Michigan? Surely it's their fault? Of course, that would mean Michiganers blaming one of their own. The reality is, Toronto has to find the best deal to keep costs down for its tax payers. The site in Michigan is the cheapest site capable of handling Toronto's waste. And in all fairness to Toronto, the city has made massive strides to reduce the amount of rubbish it places in land fill sites.

BTW, less than 25% of the waste from Ontario that goes to Michigan comes from Toronto.

The City of Toronto is already using such a system. Here is the link:

http://www.toronto.ca/environment/initiatives/cool ing.htm

Just to quote a snippet from the page:
"Enwave Energy Corporation, through partial financial backing from the City of Toronto as one of the two shareholders of Enwave, developed the Deep Lake Water Cooling system that uses the cool energy in cold water to air-condition high-rise buildings in downtown Toronto. The system benefits the City by:

        * reducing energy consumption by up to 90 per cent (compared to conventional chillers)
        * reducing carbon dioxide emissions
        * improving the water supply by using new intake pipes that are deeper
        * investing in a corporation in which the City is a shareholder

Enwave's three intake pipes draw water (4 degrees Celsius) from 5 kilometres off the shore of Lake Ontario at a depth of 83 metres below the surface. Naturally cold water makes its way to the City's John Street Pumping Station. There, heat exchangers facilitate the energy transfer between the icy cold lake water and the Enwave closed chilled water supply loop.

The water drawn from the lake continues on its regular route through the John Street Pumping Station for normal distribution into the City water supply. Enwave uses only the coldness from the lake water, not the actual water, to provide the alternative to conventional air-conditioning.


Additional data found on the page (such as savings in energy (precise figures for Metro Hall in toronto) and other stuff. Enjoy.

Erik

http://www.toronto.ca/water/deep_lake/

Deep Lake Water Cooling project
Thought Toronto was already cool? Well, we're even cooler these days owing to an innovative project.

Enwave District Energy Limited, in partnership with the City of Toronto, has developed an alternative cooling system that uses the cool energy in cold water to air condition high-rise buildings in downtown Toronto. Enwave's innovative system is great for the environment. It reduces energy consumption by up to 75%, thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

So, I'm driving on the 401 here in Toronto. The GPS suddenly decides I'm on Wilson (a major street that parallels and slips under the 401) and I'm going 50kph over the speed limit. What happens?

The CBC had a pretty good documentary that aired in August-ish that took a look at the subway musicians in areas that don't have the classical music playing. You actually have to audition for spots and there are some excellent musicians who make some nice coin for playing (and from refferals from side gigs)
I can't find a link (although it should still be available if you look through a couple documentary binary newsgroups if you have 14 day retention) but the ttc has information about it here.

You may of have heard of Subway Elvis - archive footage from the 70's

I have a real interest in public transportation. It helps the environment, it reduces traffic, and it simplifies (maybe even speeds up) commuting. As someone from the South, riding the Washington DC Metro when I was a kid was pretty fun.

But I've been to Toronto for a month, and it amazes me the way they link the bus system to the subway. The subway line itself is relatively small (but impt., since it covers the busiest parts of downtown), but the bus system is amazing (buses ply the main roads, which are straight and perpendicular, and they extend to cover most anywhere in the city you would want to go). The bus system was pretty reliable even though it was so expansive. It is so well done that unlike most places in America, people other than those who can't afford 'better' willingly use it over alternatives. (Toronto Transit map: http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/rideguide.pdf)

I've also lived in Seattle for a couple of months, and I got a chance to listen to both sides of the Monorail debate. Traffic is pretty bad during rush hour. I-5 gets clogged with traffic. Commuters do use the buses during rush hour in downtown and along the dense areas up the shore northwards. But it's nothing like Toronto. Seattle can't have a subway, since the soil is too rocky. They started digging the tunnels before they hit impassible rocks, I think, which is why buses now use the 2-3 miles of underground tunnels. A monorail already exists that ends perfectly in the middle of downtown. It was built as a demo for the World's Fair (when it was hosted in Seattle a half-century ago), so it is only 3 stops long. For the people who live in Queen Anne and other rich suburbs north of downtown, the monorail might be the only feasible option for mass transit that would be palatable to those people. Seattle's bus system is expansive (but not nice; downtown's buses are the most confusing I've ever ridden), but buses never seem to be enough for upper-middle class people.

Meanwhile, I live in the RTP area, which desperately needs something more than an unconnected group of local area bus systems. Sandwiched between Durham and Raleigh, RTP gets hit by traffic from both sides during rush hour. I-40 and any road of decent length that runs parallel to it going towards RTP is usually clogged. The area has had a hard time accepting (much less coping) with the explosive growth that has happened for the past 10 years. The current regional rail plan (http://www.ridetta.org/Regional_Rail/Overview/Reg ionalRailTrainsitSystemMap.htm) was first met with some resistance, but I think that could change. The area is hitting a wall in terms of buliding more roads, which is what it has done to delay what I think is inevitable.

A local TV news segment on the rail said that it would carry on average 13,000 people (per day or per week, I forget.) One city official commented that the regional rail here would be a waste, and with the money used to fund it, we could buy a Lexus for each person who would ride it. Of course, that's a faulty argument because: 1. The same people won't ride it every day 2. The rail service will carry many more people during large events that lend to a spike in traffic (Carolina Hurricanes, NC State football games, NC State Fair). Having a regional rail would also be doing a service to people who just want to get about their own business w/o other people's traffic 3. Most importantly: That statistic doesn't count for all the future people and future generations who will use the system

If you agree, please support the incorrigible Triangle by sending your $0.02 here. http://www.ridetta.org/Inside_TTA/Customer_Service /custFeedbackForm.html Thanks!

2 adults alone, or with up to 4 Children/Youths (Youth = *19 years of age or under). or

1 adult alone, or with up to 5 Children/Youths (Youth = *19 years of age or under).

More info at http://www.toronto.ca/ttc

Children are the purpose of marriage...
Really?
Marriage Definitions

People "married" through "common-law" aren't necessarily married for the 'purpose' of having children. Could it be for tax purposes? Could it be for love?

Also, "same-gender marriage" will always be impossible
Impossible? Nope.
simply because they cannot sexually unite.
That's news to them I bet! You can use Google to find your own relevant link to confirm "homosexual sexual unity"...
If you mean they can't have children, well then they fit right in with many heterosexual couples in this world. Perhaps adoption?

This is why I like the solution of machine generated, but human readable paper ballots. I think it can help cut down on ballot spoilage

I agree that machine generated but human readable paper ballots could reduce the number of spoiled ballots.

Acting as a Deputy Returning Officer in my province's last election, I remember finding two spoiled ballots out of the 224 in the ballot box I counted that night.

I live in a neighbourhood where 65% of the population are immigrants . With so many people whose first language isn't English and who probably think voting is still a new and novel thing, I still counted fewer than 1% in spoiled ballots.

I agree that computers could reduce this number further still, but I wonder if it is worth the effort of implementing installing machines to catch this 1%.

This is why I like the solution of machine generated, but human readable paper ballots. I think it can help cut down on ballot spoilage

I agree that machine generated but human readable paper ballots could reduce the number of spoiled ballots.

Acting as a Deputy Returning Officer in my province's last election, I remember finding two spoiled ballots out of the 224 in the ballot box I counted that night.

I live in a neighbourhood where 65% of the population are immigrants . With so many people whose first language isn't English and who probably think voting is still a new and novel thing, I still counted fewer than 1% in spoiled ballots.

I agree that computers could reduce this number further still, but I wonder if it is worth the effort of implementing installing machines to catch this 1%.

Toronto has a GIS/Map feature on their web site, which includes Satellite maps (you need to zoom in first, then it will appear). The maps are from 2002, iirc.

Shop at farmers markets.

I do, at St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, but guess what: Most of the stuff they sell there is coming in via the Ontario Food Terminal and is (at best) from the far end of the province....

Sad.