Eastern Canada - 17-Aug-09 : CTV hatchet job on bikes

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antonyfhilliard
08-17-09, 10:16 PM
Are Toronto bicycle lanes being used? (http://toronto.ctv.ca/) asks CTV (see right hand side video sidebar for Monday Aug.17). What a hatchet job.

They stopped me on College St. for an interview (I'm the guy in the green T-shirt at 1:26). I pointed at the two cars parked in the bike lane behind me, and the two on the next block and told them that bike lanes are great, except for all the cars parked in them. Not the answers they wanted.

Instead, they show footage of two bike lanes way out in Scarborough, that go from nowhere to nowhere, during the middle of a workday in a heatwave. Of course there's nobody riding there.

"Local News Matters", says CTV Toronto's advocacy page, hoping for CRTC subsidies. :roflmao2:

cyclocommuter
08-17-09, 11:34 PM
Well, if they actually built bike lanes that went somewhere I am sure they will be used. Most bike lanes north of the city proper are disjointed. I much prefer that they put bike signs instead such as those in certain streets in Markham and the one along Huntingwood Scarborough. If CTV parked at Huntingwood and waited for bikes from 8 to 10 AM or from 4 t 6 PM I am sure they will see a couple of them.

I am glad to see that the councilor appears to be pro cyclist though... unlike the councilor in my neck of the woods in Scarborough (Del Grande)... He sent out emails asking for feedback about the proposed bicycle lanes and I responded with sensible suggestions... such as continuing the bikes signs along the Scarborough part of Birchmount (they already have them in the Markham part). I got no response... I guess he was expecting everyone to voice their disapproval to the plan.
Cone Wrench
08-18-09, 08:58 PM
That was one disjointed, useless piece of journalism. There are many good arguements for and against bike lanes, but I didn't hear any of them in that piece. It is a sad commentary on the state of TV journalism today: highly edited, a few quotes from those for, a few from those against, , a few from yahoos, wrap it up. Sigh!