The Toronto District School Board just opened up a new school, Brookside Public School. I quote from their official website:
“Some of the features that Brookside possesses are a parking lot and bicycle rack area that have been specially designed to encourage walking and bicycle riding to school”
hm….
They say that cycling is dangerous.
But that danger obviously comes from cars.
But they punish cyclists for being endangered by cars? And that is legal in the US?
I sort of hate to point this out, but LIVING is dangerous…it leads inevitably to death. One way or another. I am totally confused by this “Bikes are dangerous, they should be banned at school” idea. I simply do not understand why a bicycle is “more dangerous” than a car. Automobiles cause over 40,000 deaths each year in the USA alone! and about 2,000,000 injuries requiring hospital treatment. If it was a disease, there would be TELETHONS! Jerry Lewis would be out with all his buds trying to raise millions to combat this awful killer of young adults, children and helpless senior citizens!
Here in Indiana, there is discussion about raising the driving age to 18, on the premise that since the auto fatality numbers are heavy on the 1618 end of the demographic. The rationale is that kids aren’t mature enough any more to handle a car until 18.
At the same time, there is a push to LOWER the legal drinking age to 18.
Can’t handle a car until you’re 18, but you’re mature enough to handle a bottle then? The reason is that if it’s legal to drink at 18, then the liability of our Universities for their illegally-drunk students is less. “Hey, they’re 19, we’re not responsible!”
Bet they don’t teach blacksmithing or foundry work at Yehuda’s school like they did at mine. Ohmigawd! kids handling white-hot metal! Molten aluminum!
Like Mark said, Life’s dangerous.
My daughters’ elementary school in Montreal, Canada just installed bike racks that are in the school yard and are behind a fence that gets locked just as school starts and unlocked just as school is let out.
The other day I took a nice long ride through a lot of residential streets. I came across a lot of schools and was surprised to see the number of bike racks installed.
I wanted to put this up with the current comments to draw a little attention to it; anyone else agree with Ian and myself regarding this earlier strip?
Personally I think they need to lower the drinking age to 16 and raise driving to 21. And greatly increase the cost and requirements for driver licensing. You are much more apt to kill, maim or cause expensive property damage behind the wheel of a 3000# car than anything else I can think of, yet we hand out licenses like they were candy. In NC if you are over 18 and can pass a verbal or written test and a basic skills driving test that lasts all of 10 minutes, pay your $4 a year and you are good to go for the rest of your life….
I was saddened to learn that the bike racks at my old elementary school were all removed years ago. The district took a stance of discouraging riding or walking to school over a decade ago; they actually inquired about making it illegal but were told by the state they couldn’t go that far. Last time I rode past the school I saw to bikes locked up to benches outside. Today’s kids are bring taught to fear and to avoid risks — what kind of adults do you think they’ll turn out to be?
Ummm, driving licenses. WAY too easy to obtain! WAY too cheap to get and WAY too much the “right” instead of “privilege” that it is. FAR too many people treat a car as their rightful legacy and the roads as their private playground. If you get a license, you can legally drive from that time on until you DIE without ever taking another second of driving instruction or taking a test or any meaningful physical examination.
As a CDL holder, I MUST take a physical every year. A real one! Not a “can you see the flashing light? good, thanks, gimme $20 and go stand over there” I am also subject to a drug test at ANY TIME THE DOT WISHES! On the road, at work, whenever. Car drive4rs whine that they are stopped for not wearing a seatbelt. But They should be stopped randomly to check for drugs, alcohol, having driven too long (I can only drive legally 10 hours a day) or having too many people in their car. they can be WARNED, but not ticketed for overloading the car.
With cars, anything goes. I know people who FAIL THE JOKE EYETEST at the DOT office and are told, “well, be careful!”
I live a few houses away from an elementary school, on a street that is quiet 23 hours and 45 minutes a day. For 15 minutes every school day morning, it turns into a crazy place. Cars, bikes, pedestrians all over the place, with all these adults in a hurry, kids pouring out of cars, everybody in a rush
I live a few houses away from an elementary school, on a street that is quiet 23 hours and 45 minutes a day. For 15 minutes every school day morning, it turns into a crazy place. Cars, bikes, pedestrians all over the place, with all these adults in a hurry, kids pouring out of cars, everybody in a rush
The street closure idea is an interesting one! Kind of like Ciclovia, but just do it for the one block right around the school in every direction, every morning and afternoon except for school buses. That would be so peaceful. Of course, you just move the madhouse out to this perimeter, so that doesn’t fix it either.
Growing up in Spokane, it wasn’t bad to walk or ride your bike to school… Being here now, 12 years later and have ridden in several different places around the country, Spokane goes on the top of my list of scariest / unsafest places to ride. That’s a hard list to be on top of too.
Luckily, my Youngson can ride his Bike or his UNICYCLE to school (which has 1 rack) We may even have him get his picture with the principal for yearbook stuff as he and a friend are the first two to ride Uni’s to school.
Yeah Youngson!
In our local news this morning:
A guy is due to be charged today in the deaths of a mother and her 4-year old daughter (pedestrians) near a school on Friday. He was drunk and speeding in a school zone. Oh yeah, 3 or 4 prior DUI convictions, and driving again with full privileges. Yup, there’s an outcry around here.
Two killed in train-car collision.
Another wreck by a guy who missed his exit but tried to take it, anyway.
And another where “speed was a factor” when a car tried to pass another but “lost control” (the car lost control?) and hit a guardrail.
SCHWING
Yehuda FOR PRINCIPAL!
Yehuda for President!
Case and point…
Yehuda for school board director!
He’s handling this city administrator – not with kid gloves – but with spiky cactus gloves! Appropriate.
“bike backed into *while* setting the racks up” – all the more reason for racks to have been there already
I’ll be curious to find out who the driver is and how they respond.
The Toronto District School Board just opened up a new school, Brookside Public School. I quote from their official website:
“Some of the features that Brookside possesses are a parking lot and bicycle rack area that have been specially designed to encourage walking and bicycle riding to school”
Source:
http://www.tdsb.on.ca/about_us/media_room/Room.asp?show=TDSBgreen&view=detailed&enableNav=true&self=8405
Culturally, in some ways Canada and the USA are very similar. In some ways they are very different. Bicycle culture is one of the big differences.
hm….
They say that cycling is dangerous.
But that danger obviously comes from cars.
But they punish cyclists for being endangered by cars? And that is legal in the US?
I sort of hate to point this out, but LIVING is dangerous…it leads inevitably to death. One way or another. I am totally confused by this “Bikes are dangerous, they should be banned at school” idea. I simply do not understand why a bicycle is “more dangerous” than a car. Automobiles cause over 40,000 deaths each year in the USA alone! and about 2,000,000 injuries requiring hospital treatment. If it was a disease, there would be TELETHONS! Jerry Lewis would be out with all his buds trying to raise millions to combat this awful killer of young adults, children and helpless senior citizens!
mark
Here in Indiana, there is discussion about raising the driving age to 18, on the premise that since the auto fatality numbers are heavy on the 1618 end of the demographic. The rationale is that kids aren’t mature enough any more to handle a car until 18.
At the same time, there is a push to LOWER the legal drinking age to 18.
Can’t handle a car until you’re 18, but you’re mature enough to handle a bottle then? The reason is that if it’s legal to drink at 18, then the liability of our Universities for their illegally-drunk students is less. “Hey, they’re 19, we’re not responsible!”
Bet they don’t teach blacksmithing or foundry work at Yehuda’s school like they did at mine. Ohmigawd! kids handling white-hot metal! Molten aluminum!
Like Mark said, Life’s dangerous.
My daughters’ elementary school in Montreal, Canada just installed bike racks that are in the school yard and are behind a fence that gets locked just as school starts and unlocked just as school is let out.
The other day I took a nice long ride through a lot of residential streets. I came across a lot of schools and was surprised to see the number of bike racks installed.
I wanted to put this up with the current comments to draw a little attention to it; anyone else agree with Ian and myself regarding this earlier strip?
http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=20080223
@mark…agreed!
Personally I think they need to lower the drinking age to 16 and raise driving to 21. And greatly increase the cost and requirements for driver licensing. You are much more apt to kill, maim or cause expensive property damage behind the wheel of a 3000# car than anything else I can think of, yet we hand out licenses like they were candy. In NC if you are over 18 and can pass a verbal or written test and a basic skills driving test that lasts all of 10 minutes, pay your $4 a year and you are good to go for the rest of your life….
Aaron
I was saddened to learn that the bike racks at my old elementary school were all removed years ago. The district took a stance of discouraging riding or walking to school over a decade ago; they actually inquired about making it illegal but were told by the state they couldn’t go that far. Last time I rode past the school I saw to bikes locked up to benches outside. Today’s kids are bring taught to fear and to avoid risks — what kind of adults do you think they’ll turn out to be?
@John A. Ardelli
We don’t get that white stuff here, but making that strip into a hoodie or sweatshirt would be perfect for Xmas
Ummm, driving licenses. WAY too easy to obtain! WAY too cheap to get and WAY too much the “right” instead of “privilege” that it is. FAR too many people treat a car as their rightful legacy and the roads as their private playground. If you get a license, you can legally drive from that time on until you DIE without ever taking another second of driving instruction or taking a test or any meaningful physical examination.
As a CDL holder, I MUST take a physical every year. A real one! Not a “can you see the flashing light? good, thanks, gimme $20 and go stand over there” I am also subject to a drug test at ANY TIME THE DOT WISHES! On the road, at work, whenever. Car drive4rs whine that they are stopped for not wearing a seatbelt. But They should be stopped randomly to check for drugs, alcohol, having driven too long (I can only drive legally 10 hours a day) or having too many people in their car. they can be WARNED, but not ticketed for overloading the car.
With cars, anything goes. I know people who FAIL THE JOKE EYETEST at the DOT office and are told, “well, be careful!”
arrrrrgh!
mark
Moon-Councilman 2016
Because, we need Obama (he bikes)
I admit being a biker does not qualify you to become a good president – Dubya bikes too
Anyway…
I live a few houses away from an elementary school, on a street that is quiet 23 hours and 45 minutes a day. For 15 minutes every school day morning, it turns into a crazy place. Cars, bikes, pedestrians all over the place, with all these adults in a hurry, kids pouring out of cars, everybody in a rush
I live a few houses away from an elementary school, on a street that is quiet 23 hours and 45 minutes a day. For 15 minutes every school day morning, it turns into a crazy place. Cars, bikes, pedestrians all over the place, with all these adults in a hurry, kids pouring out of cars, everybody in a rush
The street closure idea is an interesting one! Kind of like Ciclovia, but just do it for the one block right around the school in every direction, every morning and afternoon except for school buses. That would be so peaceful. Of course, you just move the madhouse out to this perimeter, so that doesn’t fix it either.
I’m still wondering where all of you are from that have schools actually restricting bikes. I posted a comment on the 10208 strip about this. Here in Spokane, we have a coordinator for the school district who works on the “Safe Routes to School” effort to get MORE kids walking & biking. Maybe just one more reason that Washington was rated the #1 state for bicycling.
Move here–you’ll love it.
For more info on Spokane bike culture:
http://www.cyclingspokane.blogspot.com
http://www.bikespokane.net
http://www.biketoworkspokane.org
http://www.pedals2people.org
http://www.spokanecentennialtrail.org
@BiketoWorkBarb
Growing up in Spokane, it wasn’t bad to walk or ride your bike to school… Being here now, 12 years later and have ridden in several different places around the country, Spokane goes on the top of my list of scariest / unsafest places to ride. That’s a hard list to be on top of too.
tick tick tick…
The driver who backed into chunkbaits bike will be in a blue car.
Luckily, my Youngson can ride his Bike or his UNICYCLE to school (which has 1 rack) We may even have him get his picture with the principal for yearbook stuff as he and a friend are the first two to ride Uni’s to school.
Yeah Youngson!
Bikes are dangerous?
In our local news this morning:
A guy is due to be charged today in the deaths of a mother and her 4-year old daughter (pedestrians) near a school on Friday. He was drunk and speeding in a school zone. Oh yeah, 3 or 4 prior DUI convictions, and driving again with full privileges. Yup, there’s an outcry around here.
Two killed in train-car collision.
Another wreck by a guy who missed his exit but tried to take it, anyway.
And another where “speed was a factor” when a car tried to pass another but “lost control” (the car lost control?) and hit a guardrail.
Wouldn’t a car crunching Chunkbait’s bike PROOVE the principle’s point??