C-vents:

• Canada Day and Parade, 2011: Riding, Premier M, J, U, poking fun at people. Used my ruddy turned up blue nose, to good effect. It is not too heavy. Was tired for the P, but happy as well.
• Waterford Festival, 2011: My premier twisting event. Some kid called me “dog”, which apparently is a good thing. U not good on grass or steep hills. Used my round yellow nose, very light and comfy, to good effect.
• Halloween Skating, Scarborough, Oct 30 2011: Had fun skating, used a very large red round. A little too large to stick and started to separate, bobbed up and down too much. Attracted lots of kids, but especially two kids, Mingming and Yeye, whom I have been sitting beside for about 3 months but they did not notice me through that time. Now they say Hi every week.
• Thornhill Historical Parade, 2011: Crowded, there was no bus at the end of the event, so had to walk. Lots of people, but Ok. Helmet top of 3 toys was too heavy, kept falling off. Performed M for a little girl on the TTC that sat across from me, while all the adults watched. Used my small red nose. Light and comfy.
• New Year’s Eve, Scarborough Civic Centre, Dec 31 2011: Little Weed twisted and had a great time. He learned a lot from another, Sparky. I did M and J. Used my new small and shiny red nose, light and really comfy. Freaked out a lot of adults, mostly. I met the rest of the SCofC, which I could not do previously. Did M in Mandarin and freaked out a lady and her son and daughter, who ran from me. No, this is no voodoo. Stiff rope went over very well, as did Prof’s Night. Fun was had by all.
• Port Union Winterfest 2012: It was raining and there was a high wind, so everyone was inside. I got lost getting to the event, and parking was terrible. We were late. Little Weed enjoyed twisting, but we ran out of supplies an hour before the event ended. They fed us a burger and drink, which was nice. Few events treat us to food.

Onward, Forward, Upward.

You will eventually need to cross a major street, so there is no avoiding the problem. Unfortunately there are many distractions that kids must overcome to safely do this. One is that they need to come of a certain age to realize that crossing a traffic intersection requires concentration. After you cross the intersection you can daydream all you want, but as we approach and during the crossing, keep your mind, ears and eyes on the task at hand. The reason is simply for safety. Kids and adults can easily be killed at an intersection. This happens regularly.

We see a lot of terrible driving here in Scarborough. In my predominantly Chinese area, it is no surprise that the majority of bad drivers are Chinese. Yes, there is a good representation of other nationalities. While most drivers are bad due to a lack of concentration on driving, their behaviour can still kill and maim the lowly pedestrian. This benign neglect is better than drivers who have selfish and arrogant attitudes, but not by much. Both will hurt you. All bad drivers are a hazard to pedestrians and cyclists. No matter that the pedestrian has right of way, this matters little when the pedestrian is struck and lands up in hospital, or worse, killed.

Many drivers who want to turn right now do not stop for a red light at intersections. I have even seen police do this. These “rolling reds” are especially dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists. When drivers are tired or distracted, they might roll through a red, not see a pedestrian and run over them. I have found it very difficult to teach my kids that, while they have a green light, many adults will drive through a red, even though they are supposed to stop. Kids are simplistic this way, expecting others to follow the rules, especially adults. Adults made them up, so why do not adults follow them? Unfortunately life is not so simple.

The hard reality of life is that in Canada more people get killed and maimed from vehicular crashes than any other reason. Drivers are not to be trusted. People here take driving as a right and not a privilege.

There are still some basic rules to the road that are followed by most drivers. These include driving on the right side of a road, and driving through a green light. Apart from these, all other rules are commonly breached. A pedestrian, for his own safety, must be certain that a driver will adhere to traffic rules or risk getting run over.

At a traffic light, each pedestrian crossing has three major hazards. This depends on whether the pedestrian is crossing with or against the flow of traffic parallel to the pedestrian.

Pedestrian walks against the flow of traffic parallel to the pedestrian: Threat 1: Car 1 signals for a right turn, but has a red light. Pedestrian has right of way. Ensure car comes to a complete stop and the driver sees you, before starting to walk. Beware the inattentive and dreaded ‘Rolling Red’ driver. Threat 2: Car 2 in middle of intersection signals for a left turn, has a green light. Pedestrian has right of way. Ensure car does not enter pedestrian walkway, the driver sees you, before continuing to walk. If in doubt, stop. Threat 3: Car 3 signals to make a right turn, has a green light. Pedestrian has right of way. Ensure car comes to a complete stop and the driver sees you, before continuing to walk. if in doubt, stop.

Pedestrian walks with flow of traffic parallel to the pedestrian: Threat 1: Car 1 signals for a right turn, has a green light. Pedestrian has right of way. Ensure car comes to a complete stop and the driver sees you, before walking. Threat 2: Car 2 in middle of intersection signals for a left turn, has a green light. Pedestrian has right of way. Ensure car does not enter pedestrian walkway, the driver sees you, before continuing to walk. If in doubt, stop. Threat 3: Car 3 signals to make a right turn, but has a red light. Pedestrian has right of way. Ensure car comes to a complete stop and the driver sees you, before continuing to walk. If in doubt, stop. Beware the inattentive and dreaded ‘Rolling Red’ driver..

Pedestrian crosses from South-East corner to North-East corner. Pedestrian crosses in same direction as traffic. Mouse over for descriptions.

Toronto’s suburbs are car oriented. I know this because if you ride a bicycle or walk in Scarborough you have a good chance of getting run over by drivers in a rush to get to wherever. Just yesterday I was riding my bicycle on the road, and a driver drove his vehicle perilously close to me in a threatening way and told me to ride faster because I was slowing him down. Markham is even more car oriented.

Markham built a north-south mini-highway, Highway 69, to the border of Toronto, Steeles Avenue. In 2005 Markham then asked Toronto to extend their mini-highway south to Highway 401. With dissent from local residents, environmental activists and local politicians, this proposal was flatly refused, and rightly so. Local residents feared they would end up with expropriated land and an 8 lane highway through their neighbourhood. The Ontario government refused to force Toronto to build this highway.

The new proposal is slightly different but not all that much better. The mini-highway from Markham (blue dots) will end at Steeles Avenue. Steeles avenue, now a 2 lane road, will expand to six lanes going westbound (red dots). A new 4 lane road will then cut southward into existing farmland to connect up to Morningside Road (pink dots), which now connects to Highway 401.

Morningside Avenue Extension Proposal, 2011, Toronto, Canada. More cars and more traffic for local residents.

I oppose this proposal because not a half kilometer west of this proposal is Highway 48, Markham Road, which is a north-south 8 lane monolith of a highway that connects to Highway 401. Why build yet another north-south 4 lane highway through suburban Toronto to connect to Highway 401 when there is already an existing 8 lane highway doing the same. We do not need more roads to cater to more vehicular traffic.

A more appropriate solution would be to expand Steeles Avenue westbound from Markham’s Highway 9 all the way to Highway 48 or Markham Road. From Steeles Avenue to Highway 401, convert Markham Road into a real highway, increasing speeds from the existing 60 kph zone to an 80 kph zone. Markham Road today is a large highway, largely industrial, with few side streets and traffic lights. It could be easily updated to handle the increased speed limit.

Morningside Road Extension, Aerial Photo, 2011, Toronto, Canada. Prime farmland would be destroyed. The local community would see a huge highway in their backyard.

Sometimes the answer to transportation is not to continue to build more and larger roads. When you already have a huge 8 lane north-south highway not half a kilometer west, and you want to add yet another 4 lane road close by, you know you are addicted to some kind of drug: This drug is the automobile. We need to stop thinking car-centric and start thinking more public transit. Expand the Go train instead. Increase the efficiency of existing roads if you must, but these roads are already at capacity. As Markham and areas north of Toronto expand, commuting by car will become slower and slower. Proposals such as the Morningside Road extension should not be approved. More capacity for cars is not the long term solution to the Greater Toronto Area’s transportation needs.

Map of the Rouge Valley area near Steeles Avenue, which includes Markham Road, Morningside Avenue, the Toronto Zoo, and the Pickering Town Line. The ravine here makes road building problematic. This area will become a national park in the future, so don't develop on it now.

Scarborough Civic Centre
150 Borough Drive
Toronto, ON M1P 4N7
Hours of Operation: 8:30 – 4:30
Information Line: 416-396-7071 Fax: 416-396-5650

Bill Blakes, Manager
Tel.: 416-396-8221
E-mail: bblakes@toronto.ca

I tried calling Bill Blakes, but he does not answer nor pick up his calls. The Information Line took my complaint and said they would dispatch an investigator. Note that it can take up to 70 hrs for an investigator to arrive, but they do eventually arrive.

I often call non-emergency Toronto police. Their number is 416-808-2222, where you can report street lights off, traffic lights that malfunction, broken street signs, or minor fender benders. For major events call 911.

For neighbours parking their vehicles on sidewalks, call the police number at 416-808-2222 and ask for parking enforcement. They will dispatch someone to your area. Parking on the sidewalk blocks access for children, pedestrians and parents with strollers.

The City of Toronto has a three hour limit for street parking on all streets. If you find someone parking in front of your house and this bothers you then you can call, but note that the Parking Authority will ticket ALL the cars on the street and vicinity, not just the one you asked about.

Parking on the sidewalk is illegal. Parking on the space between the sidewalk and the road, called the boulevard, is also technically illegal, but tolerated. If you are nice to your neighbours they will not complain. Home owners do not own the sidewalk or boulevard. These are owned by the City of Toronto.

Bicycle riding prohibited in certain parks in Toronto. The bylaw 319-69 was repealed in 1997.

Sometimes finding certain information on the internet is much more difficult than it should be. I was looking for the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada bylaw that allows bicycles with less than 24″ tires to ride on the sidewalk. I could not find it. I emailed the city clerk about the bylaw but got no response. This bylaw is heavily mentioned but almost never referenced. After about two years of searching the web, I finally found it.

Even the City of Toronto alludes to this bylaw but does not state its source. I wonder if the the legal interpretation of this bylaw is enforceable, as it is not mentioned in the actual bylaw. Would it hurt the city to reference its actual bylaw? For the record there are other fines for bicycle related infractions.

A City bylaw allows cyclists with a tire size of 61cm or 24 inches or less to ride on the sidewalk… The bylaw is based on wheel size because it is difficult for Police to enforce age-based bylaws, as most children do not carry identification. This is a municipal bylaw and rules vary in communities across Ontario.

The Toronto bylaw states that riding a bicycle with tire size over 61cm (24 inches) on sidewalks is prohibited, as is riding/operating a bicycle (or roller skates, in-line skates, skateboard, coaster, toy vehicle) on a sidewalk without due care and attention and reasonable consideration for others. The fine in downtown Toronto for not following this bylaw is $90 and aggressive cyclists can also be charged with careless driving.

Here is the actual City of Toronto Bylaw 313-27 as it pertains to riding a bicycle on the sidewalk:

ARTICLE IV: Sidewalk Regulations
§ 313-27. Horses and vehicles; Toronto Island.

A. No person shall ride, drive, lead or back any horse, carriage, cart, wagon, sled, sleigh or any vehicle over or along any paved or planked sidewalk, except at a regular crossing.

B. Except where permitted under Chapter 194, § 194-5, no person shall place on or use, draw, haul or propel along or upon any sidewalk any carriage, tricycle, bicycle, wagon, cart, hand-cart, hose, hose-cart, truck or any hand-wagon, sled, sleigh or other vehicle used for the conveyance of any person, article or property upon any sidewalk, except persons lawfully repairing the sidewalk. [Amended 1995-03-27 by By-law No. 1995-0249]

C. Subsections A and B do not apply to baby carriages, baby sleighs, children’s carts, wagons or tricycles operated by muscular power, or to shopping carts or wheelchairs, or to bicycles having each tire with a tire size no more than sixty-one (61) centimetres.

D. Pedestrians shall have the right-of-way on a sidewalk, and no person shall ride upon or operate a bicycle permitted under Subsection C, roller skates, in-line skates, skateboard, coaster, toy vehicle or similar device on a sidewalk without due care and attention and without reasonable consideration for others using the sidewalk. [Added 1995-03-31 by By-law No. 1995-0263; amended 1995-06-26 by By-law No. 1995-0445]

Due to inconsistencies in City of Toronto bylaws, fines are different for different parts of the city. The $90 fine in the City of Toronto is only $3.75 in North York and Scarborough.

< Here in Scarborough riding on the road is dangerous. People drive fast, most often over the speed limit. The skill level of car drivers is quite low. Even in supposed bicycle lanes cars invariably park there, forcing bicycle riders out into traffic. Having bicycle riders hit by open car doors is unsafe for riders. After multiple very close calls where I could have gotten seriously injured, I must question the safety of this bylaw in my suburb.

Note: There are signs in certain city of Toronto parks prohibiting bicycles. These state the bylaw number 319-69. This bylaw was repealed in 1997. Other incorrect bylaw numbers include 32/92.

Canada Day is held every year on July 01. There are outdoor events at most large parks as well as fireworks at various locations in Toronto. Some years I feel lazy and do not attend, but really this is my family’s loss.

Celebrations at Thompson Park include a live band, various family and kid entertainment such as face painting, show and tell zoo, three inflatable slides, a crafts area, a playground with a small wading pool, and roaming clowns. It was not so crowded, though parking is on the grass, away from the park.

As far as I could see, everyone got along. There were many Chinese, Philipino, Black, Middle Eastern, White and other people in attendance, all with families, and getting along.

At night we went to Milliken Park for fireworks. They were spectacular.

Maybe it was just the excellent weather, but I had a good time. It was a good day to celebrate being Canadian.

The B2M Institute Summer Camp is wildly popular because it is well run, the kids have a great time, it keeps the kids busy from 09:00 to 16:00 and because there is no registration fee. Grants from the Federal government and sponsorship by the Toronto District School Board and others, allows this magic to happen. lunch is provided to all kids, and the food is excellent. Sometimes my Little Weed would return home bragging about the lunch he had at summer camp. Maybe I should up my game plan for family food prep?

As a business analyst I enjoy analyzing the workflow of complex processes, and registration for a summer camp, while seemingly simple, can become complex due to certain human traits, some of them laughable now, but while you are in line they are not as funny. The registration is as follows. Before the end of day school, forms were sent around to parents. Parents were to fill out the form and return them to their public school, where they would be collected. You arrive on the starting day of camp. The organizers have all your info and you’re ready to go.

The intent of the preregistration, I believe is that it simplifies the first day of camp, identifies that only kids that go to the Toronto District School Board get admitted, and it gives the camp organizers precious time and information for forward planning. Registration the start day of camp for over 500 people would be total chaos. The Toronto District School Board is a major sponsor of the camp.

Last year registration took 2.5 hours in a very hot and unventilated high school, even though the kids were preregistered. I was not the only parent grumbling about the lack of organization. They eventually got it right.

This year registration took one hour, and I arrived about 30 minutes before the start of registration. Thus, there has been marked improvement in the registration process since last year. Still this year there were still many issues, some of which are the responsibility of the organizers, Boys 2 Men Institute, and some of which are the responsibility of the parents.

Many kids missed the preregistration of camp, causing havoc in the parking lot. It is difficult to determine on exactly is to blame, so there is blame all around.These issues include:

• Parents not reading the form and following directions: If parents were more interested in their kids and knew about the camp, they would have called the school and ask about the camp in advance. Camp registration forms for the little Weed’s school only went out on the second last day of school, after I called the organizer and asked him how to register. Parents did not read their form, which clearly stated the forms were to be returned to the school. Instead parents brought the form to the first day of camp and are told they would join a waiting list. In actual fact their kids will not attend camp. All 300 spots are already filled with those kids who followed the registration process.
• B2M Institute did not provide sufficient forms for each school and more importantly, did not provide the school administrators with processing instructions. Our school administrator had no clue as to the purpose of the form. no written documentation was provided and administrators were clueless as to the process. Further more, 25 forms for over 180 kids is not sufficient. I had to phone the school, go into the school office, read the form, identify that this was the Boys 2 Men Institute summer sports camp, and phone the camp administrator to seek clarification as to how to register. He asked what school I was calling about, and my call started the ball rolling. A week later and on the second last day of school, forms were sent home to parents. Organizationally, this was too little too late, leaving precious little time for parents to comply.
• The registration form by B2M was clear, easy to fill out and had written processing instructions included. On the negative, when the forms were sent out to parents, this form looked physically different from the first form I filled out, had different schools, but looked like last year’s form. As a parent I was confused enough to contact the B2M administrator yet a second time to ask him if I needed to fill this form out again. Consistency of the form would have been better. The second form was the better, because the form was shorter and left camp instructions for parents (start time and date, location of camp) after the form was ripped off and handed into the school. The first form took up the whole page, was to be completely handed in and left no information about the camp to parents.
• The B2M administrator was quick to return my call and emails. This is very good, and he clarified the process quickly.
• While the camp is held in unilingual English, 95% of attending kids are of Chinese background. Many of these parents do not speak much English and would have difficulty with the form. I, however, do not lay blame on the B2M Institute, but on the parents. We live in Canada. The camp is held in English. Either have the child read the form in English or find someone that can help you with the form. B2M Institute has no moral obligation to translate the form into multiple languages. They are a charity, not the civil service.

Today, the first day of camp and registration day, was more chaotic than necessary. Much of the problem was with the preregistration issues, but many were due to the parents. The B2M Institute handled it as best they could.

• The B2M Institute administrator blocked the door to all parents, letting in only 20 kids and parents at a time. This is excellent crowd control. He also told people trying to cut the queue to line up, at the END of the queue.
• The B2M Institute administrator was collecting forms for all the kids that missed preregistration. This is good because it gave the parents direct feedback, input and acknowledgment that the form was received properly. Parents and kids dispersed, reducing the size of the lineup. Unfortunately he was also telling them that all 300 spots for kids were already filled by preregistered kids.
• The B2M Institute administrator was also trying to explain the process to many parents, but was not able to explain himself because parents largely spoke Chinese and he spoke English. Nor did he acknowledge that there was any language issue. When a Chinese parent offered to translate he stated that no help was necessary. The reality is that not everyone speaks English sufficiently to understand the registration process, so a Chinese translator would have been very helpful.
• With no explanation forthcoming to the Chinese parents that they could understand, Parents with forms in hand continued to stay in line, not knowing that could not register their kids that day. I could see them getting more impatient and angry. A healthy and happy mood there was not.
• Do Chinese people not know how to join a queue? They certainly do. Even with other Chinese parents giving explanation, many Chinese parents tried to jump the queue and push themselves in. Some were able to push themselves in, bypass the B2M Administrator, only to be blocked inside the building because their kids were not preregistered. While I admire their persistence, there was no way their kids were getting in without the proper registration process. Simply being pushy and rude to those around you may work elsewhere.
• The traditional way for Chinese parents to jump the queue is as follows: Look at the line and try to identify a friend. Engage your friend in Chinese. Hopefully your friend will invite you into the line. If others complain that you are queue jumping and they speak to you in English you feign that you do not understand English. If you are told to not queue jump in Chinese, you tell the Chinese person to mind their own business. Because of this Chinese trait the queue gets fatter and more funnel shaped the closer you get to the entry.
• A more innovative way to jump the queue is to engage the B2M Administrator at the door. As he is explaining in English you feign you do not understand and push your way into the line. Once others see that this tactic does work, a flurry of other parents from the queue all try to do the same thing, again making the queue more funnel shaped. While it worked for a few parents, the B2M Administrator wisened up and told these parents to go to the back of the queue.
• I really do not think that language was the issue today. Parents did not or could not preregister their kids, and the result was chaos. A Chinese mob mentality was starting to occur. Selfishness showed its ugly face, as it has for the last 3 years of registration day. We are human.

With a little more forward planning, project management and a touch of Chinese translation the registration process and Registration Day could be more streamlined. Thankfully parents did not revolt, though I know some of them wanted to. Each year gets a little better, but they seem to be a little slow in learning their lessons. While there was a marked improvement over the previous two years, further improvement is required.

Tree branches cut by a Mainland Chinese neighbour. These cannot easily fit into my fireplace. Toronto, Canada

Random events pummel our life on a regular basis. This is also true here in Toronto, Canada. My fireplace is used somewhat frequently during the colder months, so I am always on the hunt for firewood. We have many Mainland Chinese people here in Scarborough that throw out burnable wood, mostly from trees on their property. It is an odd experience to me to see cut up tree branches from these Chinese houses, as most of the wood is not able to easily fit in my fireplace. This is markedly different from firewood left curbside of Canadian houses. I postulate that those Mainland Chinese that migrate to Canada are intellectuals and university graduates, and that they have no experience in making a fire or preparing wood to be burned in a fireplace or stove. Canada only welcomes educated and affluent Mainland Chinese to our shores. Maybe wood cutting should also be part of the entry criteria.

It is not that Mainland Chinese people cannot make fires. Far from it. In most of the rural villages in China life centers around a stove powered by burning wood. Someone gets up at the crack of dawn, usually the oldest woman of the house, and starts the fire in the stove. Twenty or thirty minutes later hot water is boiling and breakfast can be cooked. This occurs only if someone has previously collected and broken wood branches in such a size as to fit into the stove. Suffice to say that I have more fire starting enthusiasm than skill.

Lunch and dinner in rural China are similar to breakfast. Therefore a lot of firewood needs to be collected and prepared. Exhausting it is to collect enough wood for the family. This is also the reason you see so few trees in many farming areas. Deforestation is a real threat to rural China. In rural China collecting wood is commonplace. Not so for the Mainland Chinese that are my neighbours here in Scarborough.

Tree branches cut by a Mainland Chinese neighbour. These cannot easily fit into my fireplace. Toronto, Canada

As home owners we all love the looks and benefits of our local trees. They provide shade in the hot summer, allow animals to nest in them, and may even bloom for your visual and olfactory enjoyment. Trees do need yearly care. Branches sometimes die, which needs to be cut down and removed from the site of the tree. Leave it too long and a large dead branch might be broken during a violent storm and fall on your house.

The routine is pretty simple. Identify a dead branch, use a saw specifically for green wood, cut the branch down. Cut up the wood into smaller sections. Haul the wood to the curb. On a scheduled day determined by your garbage schedule, the City of Toronto yard waste pickup will come and haul it away. Or one of your neighbours will cart the large pieces of wood away from your house, to be burned in their fireplace as firewood. When a neighbour takes away the excess wood, the wood is burned for heat and enjoyment. When the City of Toronto takes the wood away it is cut into small chips and used as mulch for garden beds throughout the city. Either way, tree branches are not wasted.

I am one of those neighbours who’s car trunk always seem to have bark and wood chips stuck in the interior carpet. It is pretty simple, really. When you find someone throwing out wood, you determine if it is pine. If not, load it into your car trunk and haul it home. Unload it, cut it up, mark the year, stack it properly in your garage and store it for 2-3 years. This storage period allows the wood to to dry out and is more easily split and burned. Hard woods burn the slowest and is the best. Pine is the worst because it sparks and explodes when in a fire, great for an outside fire but not great for a fireplace. Burning pine in your fireplace will also accumulate creosote, a black sticky mess which needs to be cleaned. The family enjoys a warm fire, and the kids toast marshmallows to a crisp. Then I get to clean up the messy ashes.

Recently two Chinese families decided to massacre the large foliage on their property. This is a common behaviour here in Scarborough. Tree branches are broken by hand, and then the bark of the live tree is inadvertently stripped down when the cut is not clean. This scars the tree for life, looks hideous, and degrades the value of their house. Large branches of bundles in excess of 3′ are left at the curb, and not collected by the City of Toronto because the bundle is too long for their trucks.

Most Canadian families will cut a branch off a “Y” section of the tree, and as close to the branch crotch as possible. The other fork of the “Y” is then cut down top and bottom. This allows straighter sections to be more easily cut into nice bite sized wood sections that fit into a fireplace just nicely. Chinese families rarely do this. The Chinese method is to lop off the tops of the two top sections of the “Y” and then cut the base. The resulting “Y” shaped piece of wood cannot be easily stacked and is not easily burned in a fireplace. It is not easy to change their behaviour and not really my business to educate them in the not so subtle art of tree pruining and wood cutting. For sure though, these Mainland and Hong Kong Chinese have little experience with a fireplace.

Tools are another interesting topic. Mainland Chinese families seem to not want to buy the proper tools for trimming a tree. Rather than saw a branch off neatly and closely to the tree, they seem to prefer snapping it off with their hands and help from gravity. These leave jagged pieces of wood on the tree, a real eyesore to the rest of the neighbours, and is not very healthy for the tree. One neighbour was trimming his shrubs, which were so overgrown that branches were 2″ in diameter. He brings out a 2′ backsaw that had fine teeth, one used in wood carpentry. I had to stop him early for fear the saw would jump off the cut line and rip through his hand. That day, in front of me, was not the day he would visit the local hospital Emergency Department. Red is only becoming to a tree in the form of a flower. He did not know that green wood needs a different saw from a carpenter’s saw. A 2′ backsaw does not cut shrub branches very efficiently, cleanly nor safely. Lopers and saw blades specifically used for cutting down green trees are required both for efficiency and safety.

As I loaded up the wood from the curb to my car I realized that the wood was so oddly cut and knew the house owner was Chinese. Sure enough the Mainland Chinese owner came out to help be load the wood into my car. He was a nice fellow and we chatted in Mandarin. I could hardly stack the wood properly in my trunk, as there were so many “Y” pieces of wood. He wondered what I would do with the wood and I told him, in Mandarin. It was news to him that someone would want to burn wood in a fireplace, and that person was in his neighbourhood here in Toronto! Still, he was happy that I was carting away his rubbish wood and annoying tree refuse.

Mainland Chinese people migrate to Canada and live in Scarborough, and we welcome them. It is interesting for me, who has a foot in both Canadian and Chinese culture to be the bridge between. Still, with the wood cutting skills of our newly migrated, that bridge will not be made of straight wood.

Ted Laturnus is an automotive writer for the Globe and Mail in Toronto, Canada. Compared to the quality of writing on your typical motorcycle forum, his account is very well written, with a wisp of doomsday humour thrown in to break the tension. While I give him no sympathy advantage because he is a journalist, the account of his crash is no less instructive to car drivers and motorcycle riders. GWS, or “Get Well Soon”, as we say to fallen riders. It took over three years for Laturnus to be able to write about his crash, and this from an automotive journalist. A concussion, right knee and calcaneous (heel bone) shattered, permanent limp, recurring vertigo, chronic headaches, and over three months of rehab was what he received. She received a $125 ticket. Do you see the inequity of justice here?

Riders on the more intellectual motorcycle forums welcome crash reports. We pour over and sweat the minute details in order to tease out possible causes and lessons learned. Contrary to popular belief, motorcycle posters are not hellbent and have a death wish for riding a motorcycle. Motorcyclists come from all walks of life and geographic location. Riders are people and cannot be categorized simply because of their choice of transportation.

In a motorcycle crash report many people immediately blame the car driver, but just as many are first to blame the rider, even when they acknowledge that the rider was not at fault and had right of way. The rider’s protective gear is questioned. Was the rider sleep deprived, or stressed due to something emotional happening in his life? Was the rider drinking or doing drugs? Sick and under meds? Pics of the crash scene are welcomed. Photos of the gory aftermath of the crash, both the damaged bike and parts, as well as medical photos of the blood and guts are also welcomed. Motorcycle riders are not so sensitive to the politically correct. Even if there is only a sliver of blame attributed to the rider, s/he will be taken to task. Riders that ride recklessly and have then crashed are told outright they are dangerous riders and need to smarten up or there might not be a next time.

Why do motorcycle riders blame their fellow motorcycle riders who have crashed, even when there is clear agreement that the car driver is at fault? The answer lies in self-preservation. It has been well documented that for motorcycle-another vehicle crashes, well over 80% of the cases are caused by the car encroaching the right of way of the motorcyclist. Even an unintelligent newby rider will find this out very quickly on the road. The car driver makes a mistake, or purposely runs a biker off the road, and the motorcycle rider pays the steep price of recovery from injuries or death. As quoted in David Hough’s Proficient Motorcycling, a father asked a junior rider in hospital, leg broken from a crash with a car, “How could you let a car do this to you”? Ideal crash analysis results in any possible steps a rider could have done to avoid or lessen the incident.

With this perspective in mind, riders seek to understand what strategies they can follow to avoid getting smashed by ignorant drivers. Because a motorcycle is much smaller than a car, riders can take a proactive approach to their own safety. Strategies can include not riding in a driver’s blind spot, wearing reflective gear, using fellow cars to block a threatening left turner, traveling above the average speed of traffic, lane splitting, and so on. The number of strategies seem endless. Some strategies are clearly illegal, but when your health and safety is on the line, any strategy that keeps you safe is better than a legal one that will kill you. This is one of the main benefits of participating in a motorcycle forum: learning and practicing strategies an average rider can use to stay alive.

Riding a motorcycle requires 100% concentration on surrounding drivers, the road surface, the weather, your bike and your state of mind. Always staying alert is very tiring in heavy traffic. Getting stuck in a traffic jam when other drivers start to get mad is quite dangerous. Close to home the danger does not decrease. It is human nature that given sufficient repetition and in a familiar environment, a repetitive task can be done in autopilot. We have all done this before: You get to work or to a grocery store in a fog, not knowing your specific route and not recalling the trip, but you have your car keys in your pocket so you must have driven your car. Do this on a motorcycle while returning to your house and you might miss a car that ran a stop sign and end up severely hurt. This is a common occurrence.

Retribution is also a common topic on any motorcycle forum. It is very difficult to keep a cool head when some has just tried to kill you. Some US riders carry guns in order to protect themselves. Any car can become a weapon to hurt a rider, no matter than the driver is a soccer mom in an SUV, geriatric with fading eyesight, a sleep deprived white collar worker, or the distracted young female that nearly killed Laturnus.

Driver distractions are deadly to a motorcyclist on the road. Cell phone talking drivers are especially dangerous to riders, yet surprisingly there is often no consensus to this on a motorcycle forum. As stated before, motorcyclists are people too, and also drive cars. While riders acknowledge that cell-phone talking drivers are plentiful, are a threat to them on the road and can kill them, many riders believe they are better than the average driver and can easily multitask and talk on the phone while they are at the wheel. Ironic is it not? Do as I say and not as I do. The attitude of motorcycle riders can be as selfish and self-serving as a typical driver because they are a typical driver, but with better driving skills and not necessarily better multitasking skills. Even more asinine is that some motorcycle riders ask how they can use their cellphones while riding their motorcycles. As we say on motorcycle forums, these are future Darwin candidates that will remove themselves from the gene pool.

Now that Ontario, Canada has banned mobile devices in cars I have sen a marked improvement in driving. This is better for motorcycle riders as well as everyone else on the road. Yes, there are still scofflaws that flaunt the law and they still drive badly and dangerously. Vigilance and enforcement is still required.

Most troubling is the fact that drivers that maim and kill motorcycle riders state “I did not see him”. Driving requires you concentrate on what you are doing so that you do not inadvertently hurt others.

All this because an empty-headed young female driver was too distracted to notice a motorcyclist. She swears she didn’t see me. I’m pretty sick of hearing this pathetic excuse. She saw me, clear enough, but decided that, somehow, it would be OK to cut me off, that nothing would happen if she completely ignored me. How could you not see a bright purple and chrome, 400-kilogram motorcycle with three driving lights?

While you might think that a motorcycle forum can be brutally truthful to the crashed rider, and it is, there is also lots of support. Medical advice that deals with surgeries, rehab and recovery, first-aid is also provided. Legal advice in order to sue the driver, and dealing with police unwilling to charge the driver, is also given. Offers of how to repair bikes, how much, where to get spare parts are also provided. Brutal honesty aside, forums do help fallen riders build themselves up again.

Once a rider has crashed there is always the hesitation to ride again. On this topic the riding community is divided, most leaving the decision up to the fallen rider. We all know that riding a motorcycle carries a much higher danger factor than driving a car, but the benefits of riding a motorcycle also far outweigh simply sitting in a car. Each rider makes their own decision, or “Ride your own ride”.

Motorcycle riders are have the knowledge to be safer drivers than the average Joe. They hone their skills on the streets, where a lax moment daydreaming might mean a trip to the hospital. Still, riders are human and humans are not perfect.

To all the car drivers in the world, and especially in Scarborough and Toronto, Canada, pay attention to your driving. Do not run over nice people like Tad Laturnus because you were daydreaming. Ditto for young kids at crosswalks, cyclists and pedestrians. In-car distractions are becoming more prevalent while human physiology has not markedly improved. Rather it has regressed. I see proof daily in Scarborough and Toronto.

Ten bad driving habits, by Chen Xin, People Daily, equally applicable here in Toronto, Canada

As a lifelong resident of Toronto I can attest that many fellow Torontonians wonder out loud why Chinese drivers are so terrible. I am one of them. As I live in Scarborough, a heavily Chinese area of Toronto, there are certain major intersections that I avoid due to a very high proportion of Chinese drivers that approach 100%. As my ethnic background is Chinese, I have ruled out genetics. Moreover I know many Canadian born Chinese, or Huayi, that are excellent drivers. Further, anyone from Hong Kong can attest to the prowess of their local driving skill. So why are Chinese drivers so terrible?

If you have traveled to China you know that driving in China is terrible and very dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.

Beijing began a five-year action plan over the weekend aimed at cracking down on traffic violations and bad driving habits in a bid to ease the city’s worsening traffic situation.

Over the next five years, traffic police will crack down on drunk driving, running red lights, the illegal occupation of emergency lanes and bus lanes, driving without a license, and six other traffic violations. Bad driving habits, such as forcibly overtaking another vehicle and forcing it into another lane, will also be targeted.

Traffic in Beijing is horrible. I recall taking 45 minutes to travel 2 kms in a taxi. There are way too many cars on Beijing streets to travel efficiently. Still, cars that do move are dangerous. Traffic signals are ignored if there is no police on site. People park their cars everywhere, blocking whomever they wish. It seems that there is a blatant disregard for the safety and convenience of others. I suppose if you do not know someone else personally, you have no personal connection (guanxi), and therefore no need to be cordial.

I will not cite examples of bad driving practice that I have personally witnessed in China, as they are too numerous. And very scary. Suffice it to say that in trying to cross a busy Chinese street you may not make it to the other side uninjured.

We can only guess at the reasons why Chinese are terrible drivers.

1. Driving is relatively new: Yes, in China the ability to drive is very new, only within the last 10 years. New drivers lack skill. That get a driver’s license from Hong Kong are excellent drivers, and those that fail migrate to Toronto and get an Ontario driver’s license. Many from Mainland China do not have a drivers license from China, so this is their first time driving here in Toronto.
2. Driving is a status symbol: It seems like when Chinese migrate to Toronto from China one of their goals is to get the largest vehicle possible. Maybe this is to brag to those back in China that they are financially well off? Unfortunately these large vehicles are more difficult to drive. These new drives drive so poorly that they become a hazard to everyone else on the road.
3. Driving rules are not enforced: This is true both in China and Toronto. Bad driving is applicable to all drivers here in Toronto. If police would enforce existing laws there would be better overall driving habits, but even the police break the laws.

No matter where you originate, here in Toronto Chinese drivers have a bad reputation as terrible drivers. Hopefully the next generation of young Chinese drivers will not follow their parents and grow up to be skilled and courteous drivers. Parents need to learn from their kids.