Rob Ford Defends Robocalls

[groggy]

I never called downtowners elitists...... But most elitists would never a ride bike. Ie Conrad Black.

Bikers in Toronto will never happen. The pace of life and business is too fast here for slow moving bikes.

recreation only...but never a mode of commuting.

I live downtown, have two cars but bike whenever I can.
Biking downtown is faster, and the only dependable method of travel.
If I bike, I know how long it'll take me to get across town.
If I drive or take the TTC its a crapshoot, traffic, subway problems, construction....

The pace downtown is too fast for slow moving, traffic bound cars.

 

[fmahovalich]

Well folks. we have it. there is a guy who likes to ride a bike downtown.

I agree Grogs.... I guess we need to get bike lanes built for you! All over the city...like Montreal.

after all...the GTA at 5 million sure could use them for Grogs and his friend (s)

Back on topic. I support ROBOCALLS.

 

[groggy]

Well folks. we have it. there is a guy who likes to ride a bike downtown.

I agree Grogs.... I guess we need to get bike lanes built for you! All over the city...like Montreal.

after all...the GTA at 5 million sure could use them for Grogs and his friend (s)

Back on topic. I support ROBOCALLS.

I have mixed feelings about bike lanes. Most of the time I ride on the roads without them downtown. I bike faster then most other cyclists and usually at the speed of traffic so feel safer when I can mix with car traffic at their speed.

This thread makes it very apparent, though, that you're still spending too much time in your basement trying to figure out why your vcr is still flashing 12:00 and how to hook up the cable to it so you can record Married with Children reruns. Its time for you to get off the wall to wall carpet, dust off the Eldorado and try coming downtown for a spell.

Come on down and I'll buy you a good coffee (won't be timmies) and a pastry that's made with butter not oil. I'll show you where you can check out a fixie, find some pants that aren't corduroy and here some music from this century.

Find out how superior the life of us elitists really is to your non-elite ways.

 

[fluffy]

I never called downtowners elitists...... But most elitists would never a ride bike. Ie Conrad Black.

Bikers in Toronto will never happen. The pace of life and business is too fast here for slow moving bikes.

recreation only...but never a mode of commuting.

Totally clueless and ill-informed, but this is normal for you. Cycling is increasingly thriving in Toronto. The traffic is so bad that often biking is only slightly slower than the car.

 

[groggy]

Totally clueless and ill-informed, but this is normal for you. Cycling is increasingly thriving in Toronto. The traffic is so bad that often biking is only slightly slower than the car.

Biking is generally faster across town.

 

[oldjones]

Totally clueless and ill-informed, but this is normal for you. Cycling is increasingly thriving in Toronto. The traffic is so bad that often biking is only slightly slower than the car.

And often faster. But then so is walking. Bikers are guys in leathers, cyclists are very much happening all over Toronto. Perhaps less so in places like Scarborough and Etobicoke where I travel less often. But even there I have seen them.

One wonder why such fast-paced city as fm imagines would support a thriving courier industry on bicycles, but perhaps he doesn't understand that business goes for what works, not for what's comfy. Knowing how seriously a parked courier van impedes traffic (couriers included) there are even businesses that rely on walking couriers with Metropasses who hop on and off streetcars and hoof it to their destinations faster than guys enslaved by their gas guzzlers.

 

[GPIDEAL]

As always groggy you make it painfully obvious that you aren't a lawyer.

Unfortunately, Groggy will embellish things due to his dislike of Ford.

HOWEVER, responding in general NOW without the benefit of reading all of the posts hereinbefore, I have a little problem with this phone call because it's not an election. It is sort of bullying. I don't have a problem with the Ford's use of the City's phone # because I doubt it was set up to take live replies or via voice mail.

It's a general message from the Mayor. If he wanted to, he could've asked for a press conference and that might have used more City resources. I don't see the phone # as being a major issue.

But I do have a problem with the call to constituents. How does Mayor Ford really know if Ainslie's constituents were all for the subway in lieu of a seven stop LRT?

 

[GPIDEAL]

Biking is generally faster across town.

Across town? Surely you mean for a few blocks along Queen or some other busy street. Not practical for most people who don't live downtown.

 

[Butler1000]

Unfortunately, Groggy will embellish things due to his dislike of Ford.

HOWEVER, responding in general NOW without the benefit of reading all of the posts hereinbefore, I have a little problem with this phone call because it's not an election. It is sort of bullying. I don't have a problem with the Ford's use of the City's phone # because I doubt it was set up to take live replies or via voice mail.

It's a general message from the Mayor. If he wanted to, he could've asked for a press conference and that might have used more City resources. I don't see the phone # as being a major issue.

But I do have a problem with the call to constituents. How does Mayor Ford really know if Ainslie's constituents were all for the subway in lieu of a seven stop LRT?

That's the thing. If the voters receiving the call are against the new Subway. Then they have just been told their councillor did what they wanted. No problem right?

He didn't say "don't vote for Paul". He only informed the voters how Paul voted. They can use that information as they choose. Agree, disagree, or ignore. No different than any other media source.

 

[AdamH]

Across town? Surely you mean for a few blocks along Queen or some other busy street. Not practical for most people who don't live downtown.

I have a friend who lives in the Junction and works down by Union Station. She regularly takes her bike to work as it's faster and less stress than the TTC.

 

[GPIDEAL]

I laugh when I see downtowners being called elitists too.....


but taking more people off transit when they don't need to fill it over capacity... (because many people who live close-enough to drive should be enoucraged to free up space for those who rely on the TTC because they come from the 'burbs....)

and making it easier for drivers or transit users from whitby

and generating revenue for the city

makes sense....

If the roads are wide enough for bikes fine, but most aren't. I also find cyclists disobeying the rules of the road and riding as if they are equal to cars (e.g. please don't use the left turn lane - use the cross walk instead but maybe that's allowed under the law but I think it's stupid, or riding side-by-side instead of single file - I detest such riders).

 

[AdamH]

If the roads are wide enough for bikes fine, but most aren't. I also find cyclists disobeying the rules of the road and riding as if they are equal to cars (e.g. please don't use the left turn lane - use the cross walk instead but maybe that's allowed under the law but I think it's stupid, or riding side-by-side instead of single file - I detest such riders).

You are suggesting that bike riders should find a cross walk, get off their bicycles, and cross the street instead of using a left turn lane?

 

[oldjones]

You are suggesting that bike riders should find a cross walk, get off their bicycles, and cross the street instead of using a left turn lane?

What? You haven't seen car drivers do that all the time? None of them would ever think of holding up whole lanes of traffic to make their left-turn. Not for one second.

GPs right about roads that aren't wide enough for bike and car lanes both. He just forgot to mention he favours a coin toss to decide which single-rider vehicle should get the entire road dedicated to it. Of course he realizes that cycling is healthier and can put more people getting more places faster than cars onto the same stretch of road. So he's not going to make some sort of entitlement argument for cars and their lazy, comfort-addicted drivers in the face of such obvious practicality.

But while we're stuck in a world still over-populated by clumsy, brutish over-sized gas-guzzling dinosaurs with their stupid excess wheels, us swifter, smarter bi-wheeling mammals can be magnanimous, knowing we're the coming-thing. Here before the cars and here long after too.

 

[AdamH]

Either way it doesn't matter. The truth is that bikes are supposed to use the left turn lane. They also don't take up much time while IN the left turn lane so complaining about it is asinine.

I dislike when a cyclist is riding down a major street without a dedicated bike lane and insists on using a whole lane to ride in instead of staying over to the right.. Having said that, I know why they do it. It's an attempt to force cars to switch lanes to get around them (thereby eliminating the chance of a "side swipe").

I don't use my bicycle as my primary means of transportation whatsoever.. However, I do ride from time to time on the weekend.. I hate HATE riding my bike on a main road with no bike lane because some drivers insist on passing within mere inches of you (and some.. likely like GP.. do so angrily and dangerously)..

If you ask me, the solution to the problem of cyclists on our roads is to add more bike lanes and have routes that can take the cyclist throughout the city on a dedicated bike lane safely.. Cyclists are here to stay and they should be.. With the way gas prices and congestion seem to be going (not to mention our moron mayor's insistence that we sink billions of transit dollars into 3 fucking subway stops in the middle of suburbia), a lot more of us are going to be riding bikes soon enough.

 

[oldjones]

Agreed. Now, if you'll pardon me, I was actually looking for the robocall thread… Is it around here anywhere?

 

[GPIDEAL]

You are suggesting that bike riders should find a cross walk, get off their bicycles, and cross the street instead of using a left turn lane?

Yes Adam Vaughan, but seriously, is it legal for any cyclist to use the left turn lane of a street like a car? I'm not sure. Maybe it is. I might have done that once. Some cyclists can do it quickly, others I find do it perilously because they're not strong enough or fast enough.

 

[GPIDEAL]

It's simply not practical to have bicycles on every roadway. I can tolerate it a bit. I myself don't use a bike to commute except locally but I prefer to leisurely ride one on trails. I just don't trust motorists on the roads.

What? You haven't seen car drivers do that all the time? None of them would ever think of holding up whole lanes of traffic to make their left-turn. Not for one second.

GPs right about roads that aren't wide enough for bike and car lanes both. He just forgot to mention he favours a coin toss to decide which single-rider vehicle should get the entire road dedicated to it. Of course he realizes that cycling is healthier and can put more people getting more places faster than cars onto the same stretch of road. So he's not going to make some sort of entitlement argument for cars and their lazy, comfort-addicted drivers in the face of such obvious practicality.

But while we're stuck in a world still over-populated by clumsy, brutish over-sized gas-guzzling dinosaurs with their stupid excess wheels, us swifter, smarter bi-wheeling mammals can be magnanimous, knowing we're the coming-thing. Here before the cars and here long after too.

 

[Jennifer_]

Agreed. Now, if you'll pardon me, I was actually looking for the robocall thread… Is it around here anywhere?

... well the thought of the Sunday Attack n' Propaganda Show having numbered days left cheered me up today:

http://globalnews.ca/news/910972/co...plaint-with-cbsc-wants-the-mayor-off-the-air/


Councillor Ainslie files complaint with CBSC, wants the mayor off the air

TORONTO – Councillor Paul Ainslie wants Mayor Rob Ford off the air.

In a letter to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), the councillor – who was recently on the receiving end of the mayor’s robocalls – decried the radio show, The City with Mayor Rob Ford, for allegedly breaking several clauses in the CBSC’s code of conduct.


Those alleged breaches, outlined in the councillor’s letter to the CBSC, include the mayor not presenting “true and balanced discourse”, using the show to “damage and attack the integrity of others with impunity” and actively campaigning for public office. Ainslie also alleges Ford uses the show “as a bully pulpit to unfairly have advantage over potential opponents in the upcoming 2014 election.”

To remedy these alleged breaches, Ainslie wants the mayor’s show taken off the air.

A Newstalk 1010 spokesperson said in an email statement that the radio station has “no comment” and “will respond accordingly through the normal process.”



Ainslie’s relationship with the mayor has deteriorated over the past year. Their public split culminated last week when the Scarborough councillor voted against the mayor’s ultimately successful attempt to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway line into Scarborough.

The mayor responded by ordering robocalls throughout Ainslie’s ward criticizing him for supporting light rail transit and allegedly “leading a charge” against subways; a claim which Ainslie has since denied.

“It was extremely, extremely unfortunate that your councillor Paul Ainslie was the only Scarborough councillor who did not listen to his constituents and voted against the Scarborough subway,” Ford said in his message.

The mayor’s office could not be reached for comment.

 

[GPIDEAL]

I hate riding my bike on a road without a dedicated lane too as I don't trust motorists (hey, I'm careful when I drive my car but not sure about everyone else). My point is that some old streets are just not wide enough for cramming a bicycle lane in this new millennium.

Either way it doesn't matter. The truth is that bikes are supposed to use the left turn lane. They also don't take up much time while IN the left turn lane so complaining about it is asinine.

I dislike when a cyclist is riding down a major street without a dedicated bike lane and insists on using a whole lane to ride in instead of staying over to the right.. Having said that, I know why they do it. It's an attempt to force cars to switch lanes to get around them (thereby eliminating the chance of a "side swipe").

I don't use my bicycle as my primary means of transportation whatsoever.. However, I do ride from time to time on the weekend.. I hate HATE riding my bike on a main road with no bike lane because some drivers insist on passing within mere inches of you (and some.. likely like GP.. do so angrily and dangerously)..

If you ask me, the solution to the problem of cyclists on our roads is to add more bike lanes and have routes that can take the cyclist throughout the city on a dedicated bike lane safely.. Cyclists are here to stay and they should be.. With the way gas prices and congestion seem to be going (not to mention our moron mayor's insistence that we sink billions of transit dollars into 3 fucking subway stops in the middle of suburbia), a lot more of us are going to be riding bikes soon enough.

 

[GPIDEAL]

I have a friend who lives in the Junction and works down by Union Station. She regularly takes her bike to work as it's faster and less stress than the TTC.

It probably is faster on a bike (especially around Union Station with all that construction yikes!).