Alex Mather
@AlexDRMather
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I build housing at Collecdev Markee. Formerly: progressive politics in #ONPoli, #TOPoli, and abroad @BSD and the Office of the Premier of Ontario.
Toronto, Ontario
Joined May 2011
Uninformed commentators: “no one who works in the Financial District bikes to work.”. People who work in the Financial District:
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It is so very nice to be in a city that values and invests in a high quality public realm, and one that encourages people to be out in the streets and parks. Sit, sleep, play; stay a while.
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A colleague once asked me why people who often commute by bike are so quickly “radicalized” to advocate for safer streets. The answer is because if you commute by bike regularly, someone will literally deliberately try to kill you.
This happened on Dundas West this afternoon on my way home from my @thebikebrigade run. The guy (licence BR95664) deliberately tried to sideswipe me then jumped out and started chasing after me. Fortunately I managed to sprint away and lose him in traffic. #closepass
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People love retail in neighbourhoods. We should allow way more of it.
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The University bike lanes that Ford says he’s ripping out were specifically requested by the CEOs of the hospitals they front so that their nurses, doctors, and staff could get to and from work safely.
NEW: Just one day after the Ford government tabled legislation to review all existing bike lanes in Ontario, the premier is strongly suggesting the decision on at least three routes has already been made. “They’re coming out.”. #Onpoli.
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Toronto drivers crash into buildings on a semi-regular basis, but it’s a little on the nose to crash directly into a bike shop.
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You can have a handful of spots dedicated exclusively to the storage of private vehicles, or you can have this:
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Montreal’s commitment to excellence in public realm design is really quite incredible. Everywhere you look, a new street or sidewalk or leftover nook that has been reclaimed — often from spaces previously designed primarily for cars — and reinvigorated.
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The problem — same as it was and ever will be — is too many cars.
No bike lanes, no stoplights, no movement. Toronto has a congestion problem. Removing bike lanes won't fix it. cc: @fordnation
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Morning rush hour, a literal Brinks truck blocking the same bike lane in which a person was killed last week because the bike lane was blocked. The City’s data shows something like 5,000 people will use this bike lane today.
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Montreal’s commitment to sustainability and livability through widespread greening is lovely to behold — city is *lush*, much of it having come more recently from reclaiming space previously used for street parking or gained through road narrowing. All of this was space for cars.
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I once asked a former senior Toronto transportation staff member why they insisted on the flimsy plastic bollards to “protect” the bike lanes. His answer: “Well we don’t want cars damaged when they drive into them.”.
This city’s love affair with flexible bollards has got to end. Turns out “Trucks can drive over them!” is not a desirable feature for cycling infrastructure.
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A mayor leveraging her remarkably high approval rating to deliver on the promises she made during her election campaign by beginning to unwind more than a decade of dishonest fiscal management is good, actually.
Mayor Chow now speaking to reporters. Says she inherited “a huge financial mess.” City is failing to provide basic services, roads are crumbling, transit is inadequate.
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A city that values the lives of people riding bikes over the convenience of people driving cars.
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Last week the City threatened to fine people $5,000 for not shovelling snow properly.
There’s currently a barbeque in the middle of Avenue Road outside the ROM, where dozens of tractors have set up for the convoy demonstration in Toronto. #onpoli
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340,000 trips along Bloor this year that @PrabSarkaria and @fordnation would rather have happened in cars.
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If you live in Toronto, your tax dollars are paying the officer who hit a cyclist in High Park $281,031 a year to write tickets to people riding bikes in High Park.
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Montreal has made such a strong commitment to *real* Vision Zero-adherent physical infrastructure improvements that we know save lives — bump-outs to reduce crossing distances, road narrowings, speed bumps, tightened corner radii, etc. It’s all there, everywhere.
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Twelve bike commuters along Bloor this evening taking up the same amount of road space as two cars. Bikes use finite road space more efficiently than cars. Cars cause congestion because they’re inherently inefficient.
A huge and passionate crowd gathered at Queen's Park to let @fordnation know that bicycle infrastructure saves lives and is a key part of *actually* addressing traffic congestion. More people biking = less people driving. #BikeTO #TOpoli #ONpoli
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So much demand for small businesses located in neighbourhoods. Would love to see an expansion of zoning to permit them much more widely as part of covid recovery measures.
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Area man accidentally demonstrates a complete lack of congestion during five minute video aimed at demonstrating congestion.
It’s rush hour and there are still very few cyclists in the bike lanes on University Avenue.
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Spectacular new bike lanes on Wellington. Toronto can have nice things as long as the anti-safety charlatans are kept at bay.
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@AlexpiersonAMP @ChrisLewisLLS @MooreintheAM If you can't safely manage to go around that cyclist, you most definitely should not be operating a motor vehicle.
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Toronto has some gorgeous missing middle housing. We should make it possible to build it once again.
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Infuriating. People dying on the streets because of dangerous drivers flouting the law, emboldened by a police force that says it stopped enforcing traffic laws because it doesn’t have the resources to do so. But it has the resources to do this. Harmful negligence.
Bicycle paths in South Etobicoke have a speed limit, and police survey the area to make sure people aren't speeding.
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@TorontosMayor 1. Remove Mammoliti and Holyday from PWIC immediately. 2. Upgrade painted bike lanes to curb-protected. 3. Establish a new bike network plan with brand new bike routes. All more helpful than your thoughts. This is not difficult, and fewer people will die.
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I’ve now been sent this photo by people living in the US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, and Australia. This is the vision of Toronto that is being projected widely right now. 📸 @Lachancephoto
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Vehicles ridden to school by students and teachers who @PrabSarkaria and @fordnation would apparently rather have not made it in safely today.
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Montreal’s contemporary attitude toward urban design rings of a city that loves people living and playing in it and wants to encourage more of it. It is to be emulated.
So, we pedestrianized Canada’s largest commercial street and this happened…
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Absolutely stunning new affordable housing project wrapping up in Toronto’s West Don Lands. You love to see it.
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Today in “gentrification is whatever I define it as to make my point.” This development is replacing a massive discount store with literally hundreds of below-market rate homes, along with hundreds more market purpose built rental homes and new spaces for independent businesses.
Wild that in Toronto we just let a developer buy an entire neighbourhood that was really successful and just destroy it
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Griffintown. New neighbourhood, big influx of density. What is Montreal doing in response? Right-sizing the streets, widening sidewalks, building protected bike lanes, and generally repairing the prevailing auto-centric form to respond to an influx of people. Managing growth.
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The Danforth is 1,000 times more enjoyable with bike lanes and patios. Makes you want to stay, shop, linger. Good for businesses and people. #DestinationDanforth
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Let’s do it again.
We once allowed four story apartments to be built on residential streets. And they’re beautiful. Exactly where they belong. Not confined to an avenue or transportation corridor, but in the community itself.
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Regular reminder that the @BloorYorkville has actively campaigned against road safety measures on this very stretch of road.
Horrible scene on Bloor in yorkville this morning. 3 scattered bikes, a truck driver wearing headphones, blood on the road.
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“If pedestrians would just stay on the sidewalks and follow the rules, they’d stop dying in record numbers”, they say. #walkTO
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Another day, another Toronto driver plowing through sidewalks and into immovable objects.
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John Tory doesn’t think the people who ferry his Uber Eats order from the Yonge Street Terroni to his Yorkville condo deserve to be safe while doing it.
“If you take out the food delivery bikes, there’s not many (bikes).” . Here is Tory saying an entire class of workers - the young men who commute from Brampton to bring Rosedale its Uber Eats - don’t count. Clearly, they should cycle in mixed traffic and risk dying.
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Because this is now a fairly regular occurrence in Toronto, I am now teaching my toddler to stand behind light posts at intersections when waiting to cross the street.
Pedestrian seriously injured at Avenue Road and Davenport. Road safety improvements on Avenue Road are scheduled to start soon, which unfortunately was not soon enough to prevent another injury. Via.@ARSCSafety
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Shaw Street feeling much safer for pedestrians a couple days after the @TorontoPolice spent all weekend harassing cyclists on the street…
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Every night there is street racing all over the city that the police refuse to enforce.
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It’s the absolute best how there’s zero congestion every time one of these politicians does one of these posts.
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Imagine looking at this and thinking “what this place really needs is two thousand more parking spots.” . That’s literally the current plan for Ontario Place.
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“Respect for taxpayers” is lighting $75 million on fire to make traffic very bad for a year, then not discernibly better afterwards, and endangering tens of thousands of people in the process. Truly bottom of the barrel, lowest common denominator stuff.
In summary, Ford's bike lane removals will, according to a new City Hall report:. - Cost $75 million in direct costs and sunk costs. - Make traffic much, much worse for at least nine months during construction to remove lanes.- Have minimal long-term impact on car travel times.
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Narrowed roads.Pedestrian crossovers.Tightened curb radii.Metal bollards.Photo radar.Protected bike lanes.Actual enforcement.Harsher penalties.And so on and so on. THIS IS NOT HARD.
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…and not only do the offenders not typically go to jail, they don’t even lose their licenses. In fact, most often literally *nothing* happens in response to them trying to kill you.
Road violence is real. Motorists like this should lose their license.
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Businesses along Bloor say bike lanes along Bloor are good for business.
Ontario Premier promises to take bike lanes off Bloor. Inbox, BIA repping 270 businesses there says they: . "a firm believer in the actual evidence that concludes that bike lanes on Bloor Street are good for business, improve safety for all road users, and reduce congestion".
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Anyway, it seems no one on site was seriously injured, which is genuinely a miracle, but every single bike lane should be protected and there should be way more protection for people walking and sitting on patios. Cars are dangerous.
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The speed limit is 40km/h on both of these streets. This will keep happening until Toronto gets serious about making changes to its physical infrastructure. Most everything else is window dressing (which is why this epidemic persists).
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Nice to see towns like Belleville get on the “streets are for people” train.
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Apparently the head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association doesn’t know what red lights are.
This is the controversial University Avenue bike lane at rush hour today. Not one bike in sight while traffic backs up for 2 kms to the highway. Where are all the people that are supposedly cycling to work in 🇨🇦s busiest financial, government & health centres?. In traffic.
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This is directly across the street from the section of the city’s busiest bike lane, which it was decided couldn’t have physical protection for people on bikes because some car parking would be lost.
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@fordnation @Raptors your entire career is focused on screwing the city that has repeatedly and steadfastly rejected you.
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I came upon this scene yesterday, a tragically perfect illustration of why Vision Zero is failing in Toronto (and of the fact that unprotected bike lanes are horrible and dangerous). 1/x
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As it now seems clear the police aren’t going to play ball here, it’s really on the TTC/Transportation Department to make changes to the King route that obviate the need for enforcement. That should be on the next Council agenda.
Earlier tonight my streetcar driver told us we’d be better off getting out and walking down King. He was right.
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Meanwhile, in sane jurisdictions outside of Ontario.
Right now, 70% of the people on Fifth Avenue are pedestrians but they can only use less than HALF of the space!. That's going to change under the plan we rolled out to completely transform Fifth Avenue into a WORLD-CLASS pedestrian-centered boulevard. Learn more:
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Again, “luxury condos” are the most affordable option for most Canadians living in urban areas, and are also the primary source of housing that is secured at below-market rents. This rhetoric is , as ever, both deeply misleading and plainly unhelpful.
Justin Trudeau says one thing but does the other. I visited Edmonton Griesbach, where Justin Trudeau promised to build more affordable homes. Instead, he's building luxury condos you can’t afford. With his plan — developers get rich, you get gouged.
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Reminder that if even a small portion of these people choose to commute by car rather than by bike or transit, the city will come to a messy, grinding halt. Toronto needs a substantial, immediate build-out of a protected bike lane network.
HAPPENING NOW: Commuters wait for shuttle buses during the morning rush as the TTC suspends subway service between Jane and Ossington stations due to a partial derailment. For the latest:
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The CEOs of those hospitals literally wrote City Council to ask to have those bike lanes put in to help their healthcare workers get to work safely.
Today I announced that if I’m elected Mayor of Toronto there will be no more bike lanes on major roads and we will tear up the dedicated lanes on University Avenue to not slow down access to hospitals.
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The problem is cars.
Streetcars along King Street are travelling slower than prior to a pilot project that was intended to make transit a priority, according to new data.
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The CEOs of the hospitals that line the street where Saunders made this announcement wrote City Council to ask for those bike lanes to be installed so that the people who work at their hospitals could get to and from work safely.
Saunders says he’s not against bike lanes, and that they can be good things. But he’s against how they’re being implemented. Says there’s not enough consultation and they make traffic worse. Claims downtown politicians are forcing them where they don’t belong.
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@6ixbuzztv Maybe they should have started with the dangerous drivers who are actually killing and maiming people every single week in Toronto. FFS.
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Did you know Toronto has had more than a decade of conservative mayors, including the most recent one who left office some fifteen weeks ago?.
Did you know major crime is up 20% in Toronto over last year’s record crime rate?.We have a problem with crime in this city. The woman apparently in the lead to be mayor doesn’t talk about the issue. Read & RT #topoli .
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Streetcars get stuck on King Street because cops refuse to conduct the enforcement on which the King streetcar relies. Makes you think!.
Toronto police say while they stand behind an officer's decision to ticket a TTC streetcar operator for blocking an intersection during rush hour, traffic congestion should have been considered.
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Okay, I'm pissed off. So, there was a "cyclist blitz" on my street this morn: 2 officers in 2 cars, observing a stop sign. 1/
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We should close down more streets to cars and open them to people on weekends in Toronto.
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It is a fiction that Ontario Place has been “largely closed since 2012.” In reality, it is currently — and should remain — a well used public space.
Inbox: Ford government should sell Ontario Place to developers, says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
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Another day, another instance of getting called a “faggot fuck cyclist” by a Toronto driver. This is for some reason a common refrain.
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Is there a better visualization of the efficiency and importance of rapid transit than the videos we see whenever even a part of a major line is shut down? Imagine if all these people drove cars everyday.
HAPPENING NOW: Commuters wait for shuttle buses during the morning rush as the TTC suspends subway service between Jane and Ossington stations due to a partial derailment. For the latest:
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Folks is it a nuisance when you get fined for breaking the law?.
In 2006 I warned at Queen’s Park that photo radar was a slippery slope. While well intentioned to reduce speeding they would ultimately become a cash cow for municipalities. Case in point 👇 and in addition, as with any revenue to any government at any given time, the proceeds go.
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“Over the course of a 40-hour work week, one crew spent more than 10 hours parked at plazas and other non-City locations, an average of more than two hours a day.“ . No wonder Toronto parks look like garbage.
Toronto's parks maintenance workers have basically been operating on an honour system, and the auditor-general has found evidence they are taking advantage of the lack of supervision.
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Here’s How…to block the sidewalk, crosswalk, and bike lane all at the same time.
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This one in particular ran a stop sign, nearly hit me, then tried to swerve me off the road after I yelled at him. I’ll report him to the police, who will do nothing because they are literally too busy ticketing cyclists in High Park.
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Find someone who loves you the way Toronto politicians love ageing highways.
Toronto could fully repair every one of its social housing units and every one of its parks facilities for less than it is spending ($2b) on repairing one elevated expressway. #topoli.
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So glad @TrafficServices are out ticketing cyclists in High Park again. Wouldn’t want to be caught *actually* serving or protecting vulnerable road users, now, would we?
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Toronto’s version of the “thoughts and prayers” that accompany every US school shooting. This, from the Mayor who appointed the councillors most vociferously opposed to protecting cyclists to the committee in charge of protecting cyclists.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of the woman who died while cycling at Bloor and St. George Sts. today. The deaths of pedestrians & cyclists on our streets is deeply troubling to me. I am determined to do all we can to make our streets safer.
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1. This is very well trodden ground for mayoral hopefuls—more often than not it hasn’t ended well for them (including in the last election).2. This work is tied to water main replacement & isn’t changing the # of lanes.3. Filming stuff with your phone while driving is illegal.
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The Premier has apparently never heard of the Santa Claus Parade.
When Toronto traffic is so bad that NHL teams have to walk to their games, we’ve got a serious problem. That’s why it’s so important that we deliver on our plan to fight gridlock by bringing sanity back to bike lane decisions, building highways and public transit, and speeding.
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University intersects literally every east-west protected bike lane in the city. Demand would *explode* if protected bike lanes were added to the expressway-like University; it’d be the first real step towards an actual (but small) safe cycling network in Toronto.
Clr Holyday says some streets being studied for bike lanes show incredibly low cyclist use now, cites University Ave. Doubts predictions of rapid cyclist uptake if lanes built. (University is almost an inner city highway with some stop lights. Cars travel very fast).
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The new Garrison Crossing pedestrian and cycle bridge, a treasure.
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Mass timber construction on Toronto’s waterfront. Great to see it rising.
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Density + plenty of public seating + nearby food and beverage offerings = busy parks.
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