The TTC seems to have stayed the same. I expected advancements, but this is not so. They struggle to keep from falling backward on themselves. While most bus drivers are courteous, I have met those who are not. Once there was a detour because of a crime and police had closed the road. This driver did not even announce why he was detouring, so many people asked. He got so mad.

One day on the Yonge subway line I was able to try out the new subway trains. This is one long train that you can walk from one end to the other. Very nice. The schedule has LEDs that light red or green, but have no legend, so I did not know their meaning. Was I to guess? The loudness of these trains was by far much less than the old TTC subways, and much more comfortable. Annoying was the fact that the metal passenger handles on the roof and in the middle of the car squeaked incessantly when passengers and the train moved. This was a new train, and these metal handles were squeaking like rusted objects left out in the rain.

Finding your most efficient TTC route takes some time. The Finch East towards Yonge Street has had construction for the last year. Traffic was down to one lane, slowing the express bus to a crawl. That was the last I used that route.

As I knew before, most TTC commuters sleep. At leat 60% of all commuters close their eyes and try to wish away their commuting experience. Others have ear pieces and listen to music while sleeping. It is annoying to walk behind those that fiddle with their phones and e-toys, who slow down because they need to concentrate on their fiddling. Please, people, step aside and fiddle, and let others walk to their destination.

Electronic toys will be the death of many, I am sure. I saw some guy trip on the sidewalk while texting, and there was no break in the sidewalk. Two people walk into each other, both texting on their devices. It is comical. Darwin candidate?

People are as colourful as usual, with a variety of dress and looks. It is interesting to see them and analyze their dress. Pretty girls everywhere. To fit in and to look normal, seemingly.

I walk and look through my narrow periscope, trying to see the big picture. Maybe the solution is to aggregate these experiences and build up a composite.

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 can phone the City of Toronto’s 311 information number to have someone locate your municipal shutoff valve. This is usually on your front lawn, on the side of your house where your water meter is located. Since my grass covered my municipal water shutoff valve, this was not easy and I needed help. The city will dig out the grass covering your shutoff valve as well.

The process for replacing or repairing your main water shutoff valve is pretty simple but a little expensive. These details include:

1. Call a plumbing company the day before and arrange for a plumber to be at your house at 10:30 am. This can be done in advance.
2. The day of the repair, call the City’s 311 information number and request your water be turned off. Tell them that you have booked a plumber for 10:30 am. While the official turnaround time for the city is within 24 hours, they will strive to turn off the water before your plumber arrives. They will provide a reference number, so that if a City worker does not arrive you can call the city back with your number. Today I called the City at 06:00 am to shut off my water, told them about booking my plumber for 10:30 am, and the water technician was at my house at 8:45 am. Someone needs to be home for them to turn off your water. The City of Toronto charges $75CAD to shut off your water. This takes them about 1 minute.
3. The plumber will arrive to change the main water shutoff valve. This valve is under pressure and you certainly do not want this to leak. As well, there is some leakage from the municipal water shutoff valve, and this seepage can make soldering a new valve difficult. Water deep in the pipe turns to steam and prevents a good soldered joint. You might be able to stuff bread in the pipe to prevent this. I had to use a thin polyethylene tube to suction out enough water to replace the valve before it overflowed. This is not a DIY job. Expect to pay around $250 – $300CAD.
4. Once your plumber repairs or replaces your main water shutoff valve, call the City’s 311 info number again to have your water turned on. This will cost you an additional $75CAD, and will take the technician about 1 minute to complete the work. I was told I was lucky today because they arrived at my house 30 minutes after I called. The city will again provide a reference number.
5. Turn on your main water shutoff valve and enjoy your water.

The financial cost at the end of the day was $260CAD for the plumber and $150CAD to the City, for a total of $410CAD.

While the charge from the City seems excessive, we taxpayers must pay more for the water infrastructure that we enjoy daily. In my case my municipal water shutoff valve worked wonderfully, even though it had not moved for near 30 years. The water technician used a tool that was only 1.5′ long. The valve is actually over 4′ deep underground, but there is a 3′ metal rod that stays in the ground and is connected to the shutoff valve. Note that in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto with over 320,000 people, there are only 2 water technicians on staff.

I could not believe that the plumbing company would charge $235 + HST to change one simple water shutoff valve. It certainly became believable when the plumber showed up. My supply pipe, buried in the concrete in my basement, was now a non-standard size. The measured supply diameters were 3/4″, 13/16″ output, 3/4″ threaded output. This connection was soldered. The output of the shutoff valve that goes to the water meter, was a threaded brass pipe. It turns out that the company that made my valve discontinued it many years ago. It took a trip to Home Depot and two trips to the plumbing supply store to get the right fix. This fix took a long time to figure out, but was quickly completed once a solution was found. Alan is a smart guy.

There are some repairs that the average handyman should not do on their own. The risk of flooding is too great to take this risk, so I was willing to call in a professional. I am glad that I did, because in the end it was done properly, and should last another 30 years.

Thanks to Alan Pir of Anta Plumbing (416-231-3331) for a job well done.

Note that the City of Toronto is in the process of replacing all house water meters. Started in 2010 this program will ramp up between 2013 and 2015, Scarborough and most of the City of Toronto included. This water meter replacement will require the home owner to shut off their main water shutoff valve so that the water meter can be replaced. If any homeowner has installed a water shutoff valve after the meter, this will be insufficient. The main water shutoff valve, between the city supply and the City water meter, will need to be serviced.

Inside a Solid Waste drop-in Depot, Toronto, Canada. Garbage everywhere.

Not all garbage is disposed of in the same matter. Here in Toronto, Canada we have fairly strict rules of garbage disposal. There are organics, recyclables and yard waste, all with their special pickup schedules. And then there the pickup for “the rest”, that that is destined for land fill, tilled down and buried into some hill, whereabouts unknown. Old shingles from my recent shingling task needed to be disposed of, so off to the Toronto Solid Waste Drop-off Depot I went.

Torontonians seem to be fanatical about the ever changing weather and garbage disposal. We sort out all our garbage to an amazingly fine detail. How someone trained us to do this monkey work and actually enjoy it is a mystery.

There are the organics, which are all vegetable and fruit peelings, plant material and anything else that is natural and can be degraded. Most of this, with the exception of meat products and think tree branches, goes into my composter. We use our composter all year, in all weather. While fine in the summer, in the winter I often need to knock the ice off the top with a good rap or two in order to free the lid. Refuse I put into the large black bin in the winter promptly freezes, then thaws out to a gooey mess in the spring. All this compost goes right back into my garden. Nothing is wasted. While I do not consider myself a die hard, tree hugging environmentalist, I try to do my part to not destroy our dear Mother Earth. A futile attempt, one might say, but to not try would be courting certain disaster.

Those that do not compost or for items unsuitable for the composter, but not plastic, can go into our weekly green bin pickup.

Yard waste is the next category. These are tree trimmings, leaves, roots and anything that grew in your yard. This biweekly pickup is usually frequent enough, but in the fall with all the leaves dropping from the trees, biweekly is not sufficient. There is no defined bin colour or size for yard waste. Some people buy large paper bags, and some people use plastic yard waste containers.

Recyclables (goes into a blue bin) are anything such as paper, styrofoam, card board, metal cans, etc but only specific types of plastic, that can be recycled by the City of Toronto. The list of acceptable recyclables constantly changes each year, so I need to review the acceptable list. It is a little complex. I have put items out that were on the acceptable list, only to be rejected by the garbage guy and thrown on my lawn. Hey, I thought we’d be reading the same list of acceptable items, but sometimes we have differences. This biweekly pickup has no limit on bin size. There is no extra charge to pickup more recyclables, as Toronto is encouraging recycling.

The four sizes of grey garbage bins, Toronto. The larger the size the more you pay.

The rest of everything else, including all excluded plastics, goes into what I call regular garbage (goes into a grey bin). The city simply calls this “garbage”. These are items that go into a landfill somewhere near Toronto, though I do not know where. Home owners can choose between four sized bins, depending on family size and preference. Use the smallest bin and you get a small credit from the city. Use any of the medium, large or extra large, and the City charges you a premium. Most people have opted for the small size, which holds only one garbage bag worth of garbage. There is also a long list of unacceptable items for the grey bin. One of these is construction material, such as wood for framing a house and my used shingles.

To dispose of my shingles I had to figure out where is the nearest Toronto Solid Waste Drop-off Depot. They are open most days and for long hours, but infrequently for residential waste. The hours for residential waste are all day Mondays, and only 6-8 am and 6-8 pm on weekdays. This is most inconvenient, and I had to plan my trip accordingly.

Waste at the Drop-off Depot is charged by the kilogram, the more you have the more you pay. They weigh your vehicle as you enter, using a large scale built into the pavement. Then some guy directs you to a place where you can dump your trash. No workers help you, so you are on your own. Once you have dumped everything, your vehicle is weighed again. The difference is the amount of trash you disposed. My shingles weighed 260 kg, or 573 lbs, and I payed $26CAD. This works out to $0.10 per kilo or $0.45 per lb. A standard bundle of shingles that weights 75 lbs would have a disposal fee of $3.40CAD, or an additional 19% of its original cost.

There is a minimum charge of $10CAD. The Depot’s credit card reader was broken so they only took cash, which I thankfully had. The whole ordeal was relatively painless, though calculating the dumping cost and hours of operation from their web site was confusing. Getting up for the 6 am trip to the Depot was also unappealing, but I do hate a queue.

Reshingling of part of my roof went well. I did not fall off. Dirty yes, but it had to be done.

Sucking out the insulation in my attic was traumatic due to cause. The house was much colder at night. Still, I feel better than the cellulose insulation is not gone. Cellulose insulation is a fire hazard and is pretty combustible. Though it will not dramatically burst into flame it will smolder for hours until it reaches wood, which it will set on fire. Why is this type of insulation still being sold I do not know. We replaced our cellulose insulation with blown in fibreglass.

An empty attic space allowed me to repair the vapour barrier. Over 30 years ago, builders were not too particular about ensuring your attic vapour barrier was sealed. There were rips all over, places not sealed. I used sheathing tape, aka Tuck tape, to seal up ajoining sections of vapour barrier, repair ripped sections, and replaced a section. Ideally I wanted to spray foam the vapour barrier, but a quote from Insta-Insulation came in at ~$4,000 (Walltite Eco), way over my budget. Spray foam would have been the best. Steve Maxwell recommends Tiger Foam. I will consider this next time, but they do not have pickup locations in East Toronto.

Vent stacks were not sealed. These were sealed with spray foam. Mice openings were found and also sealed with spray foam. I walked the perimeter of the house and found many small openings, which I sealed with spray foam.

Most annoying of all is that I discovered that my two bathroom fans were venting into the attic. Both fans were venting into a galvanized pipe, which went somewhere and was covered with insulation. Once the insulation was gone it was clear than the original installers simply jammed the galvanized pipe into the eave as best they could and left it like that. Unfortunately they did not cut the soffit plywood and no soffit venting was done. As the home owner some 35 years after the fact, I had to again get up on my roof, remove the eavestrough and fascia, remove the existing aluminum siding used as soffit, find the exhaust pipes, cut the soffit plywood, install 90° elbows, buy and cut vented soffit, merge the vented soffit into the original aluminum siding used as soffit, then reinstall everything back to original. The new vented soffit material needed to be bent in order to seamlessly hook into the old aluminum siding. I also added styrofoam baffles throughout the attic space. I did learn a lot doing this but it was still a lot of work that I did not intend to do. I have the satisfaction now that my fans are venting to the outside. My neighbour confirms that his fans are venting into his attic.

There is more attic venting I can do, but at a cost. I have three soffit vents in my aluminum siding soffit. Only one has the soffit plywood cut and is venting to the outside. The other two are sealed tight. The deception is maddening. The fix would be to remove my downspouts and eavestrough, remove all the fascia, remove the aluminum siding soffit, cut holes into the soffit plywood, add new aluminum soffit vents, then reinstall everything back to original. The problem is that the new aluminum soffit is much longer than the old aluminum siding soffit. Replacing a couple of panels in the middle of a 25′ run and then ensuring that the end pieces seamlessly fit, as original, is quite difficult. Retrofitting this back to original so that it looks like nothing was changed is quite a challenge. While I like challenges, I pick them with care and only when they bias to my benefit.

Crawling around my attic I find a pot light near my front door. It was the original one that came with the house. Rated at 150 watts, there was cellulose insulation all around it. I find out that this fixture is safe provided there is no insulation covering it, but without insulation and vapour barrier, in the winter hot air from the house enters the attic, melts snow from the roof, which then refreezes causing an ice dam. I have been pondering why I have been having small ice dams for over 5 years, and I believe I have found the source.

The original pot light, being 35 years old, was not rated for contact with insulation. I do not think they had this standard back in the day. A new, IC (insulation contact) rated pot light was purchased for $17CAD. A building code rated vapour barrier of thick blue plastic was also purchased for $8CAD. These costs are small. Installation would be more difficult. The old Halo brand pot light was made of thick steel and is well made. The 4 nails holding it to the rafters would not come out, so I had to cut the nails with a dremel. The new Halo brand pot light installed easily, and the electrical 3 wire connection was a very simple push in type. Halo makes some good stuff.

Installation of the pot light vapour barrier was much harder. The vapour barrier looks like a plastic box with the top open. It must be cut and tuck taped into place, around the rafters and pot light. Doing this taping took me about 3 times more time than installing the pot light. Eventually I was done. The insulation guys covered it with pink blown in fiberglass, as it was intended. The pot light is now air tight and insulated. There will be no hot or cold air infiltration from my living space into the attic, thereby eliminating my ice dam problem. I will see this winter.

With all the work I have done this month, the house hardly looks any different. All my work was behind the scenes and hidden. The original builder skipped corners where the home buyer could not see. I suppose this is common in the building industry. A building inspector cannot see every little detail. I do wonder about the integrity of the workers, who skipped steps and cheated the original home owner, and all subsequent home owners. I did learn a lot more about the systems that run my house.

One can only control your own actions. I would never cut corners on a job, even if I knew the owner would not see it. Eventually someone finds out you cheated them, and sooner or later you will be found out. Do the best job you can, because the end result will shine through.

Chubb Monitor Qx started warnings, the trouble LED always lit. The battery needed replacing.

Somethings in your house just keep working silently in the background. You eventually take them for granted, out of mind and out of sight. Such was my Chubb Monitor Qx security system, 452-4713, until the alarm started going off in the middle of the night, here in Toronto, Canada. It aurally called for attention. The trouble LED light remained lit, but with no station indicated. It turned out the battery was near dead. Once replaced it returned to its normal state of silence.

The Chubb Monitor Qx is a small pad type security monitor. Every so often it would sound a high pitched warning and the trouble LED would be lit. I would clear it and the problem would go away. Last night the warning went off seven times in the middle of the night. It needed attention.

The user manual is online from Chubb, but does not state much about the trouble LED. Do a “*23″ + pin and see if it gives you a station code. Mine did not. Maybe one of the 8 stations need attention.

Downstairs I looked at the closed security box. Check that the phone line is firmly plugged into the phone outlet. Undo the cover. Check the three fuses with a multimeter to ensure continuity. All were Ok. The security system has a 12v 7ahr lead acid battery. This metered at 9v. I found my problem. Unfortunately for me there is no code from the Monitor Qx to tell me the battery is dying.

I got a new 12v 7aHr battery from my local electronics store for ~$12CAD, plugged it in, closed up the box and cleared the alarm. The trouble LED turned off, and all is back to normal.

Arriving at about 11:00 am, we first saw Fireguy. He did juggling and fire eating. Interestingly he sat atop a cube, put down 4 large cups and proceeded to put a flat sakeboard on top. Atop this he added his 5″ rola and then bola. Getting on was a little tricky. He acually told us about a missed mount, where he cut up his right forearm. Today he did it right. Up he went, and then juggled 3 torches. Fireguy was interesting.

Billy Kidd was a female performer from Edmonton, Alberta. She looked part or all Asian, but also spoke with an interesting British-ish accent. Definitely representing the female viewpoint, her male volunteers were the target of some of her jokes. Card magic tricks are difficult to see from afar. The Little Weed got bored and we left early.

We have seen the Ben Show before. Ben Burland had visited when I was part of the Toronto Unicyclists, so he was a familiar face for me. Highlights included a three-wheeled unicycle giraffe, with all the hype of the mount. Balancing the giraffe on his chin at the end was fun to see. A bonus of the 3 wheeled giraffe is that there is no chain to worry about and adjust. New to his act was the sword swallowing, which turned out great when he showed us that his blade curled up into a roll of aluminium. There was certainly genuine concern in the audience. His tiny bicycle was interesting to see him ride.

Bendy Em from Australia fits herself into a 16 in square box. With an additional small basketball.

Bendy Em, a contortionist from Australia was so sweet to the audience. There was not a bad bone in her from the start. Happy, polite, in excellent physical shape and very strong, she bested her two male volunteers, whom she called her “boys”. She took great pride in taking their shirts off, and then apologizing to their wives! A class act. Unfortunately she was on an elevated stage, which did not allow the Little Weed to get a good view. Her contortions were not visible from my view. I had to hoist the Little Weed up for him to see anything, and then my arms and shoulder became sore. She had a 16″ square box on a 5′ high platform of the same dimensions, so at least we cold see her from afar. Not only did she contort herself into the 16″ square box, with the lid shut, but she also stuffed in a small basketball in the middle. First a shoulder and head, then pelvis. The ball was then repeatedly hit with her left arm until it thunked into her stomach, with a secure thrump. It was as if it had to get by a cork before getting to the inside. Finally the left leg and left arm was in the box. While still talking the box then started to fog up! After a minute or so she started to wiggle her way out. Bendy Em was a class act, but I could not see much of her performance because of the stage.

Chalky was an artist doing a 3D chalk drawing of Mona Lisa on the street. His drawing looked so real.

Close Acts, XL-Insects were from the Netherlands. They roamed around in large insect costumes on stilts. Their master walked behind them with a large stick, glowering at passers by. It was certainly an odd site. Their stilts were mere 2 x 2 round legs. The performer’s actual heads could see through the insect’s upper torso, so you could imagine just how large these insects stood.

Gazzo, from the UK, produces a huge melon from his hat, and oranges from his cups.

Gazzo from the UK is a magician with lots of wit. There were instances that were on the edge though. There were references to him not legally able to get close to children, which was funny in a creepy kind of way. These are issues that are difficult to poke fun at in this day and age. He called to a girl by the title “Virgin”, but when she stood up he asked her who she was fooling and called up this young guy. She was very embarrassed. Maybe it was British wit, but he also insulted the audience for not getting all his jokes. Frankly I did not get some of his jokes, and others that I did get were simply not funny. Still, his performance was quite good. For magic he had three large cups and proceeded to extract large oranges from them. Some of the oranges were so large that he had to tap the cups on his table to get them out. After putting his hat on the table, he exposed a large cantaloupe underneath. How he did this I do not know. Aggressive comedy club humour was his style. Thankfully the kids in the audience did not understand him much.

Leapin’ Louie Litchenstein, from Oregon had a cowboy theme going. This was a little odd because I did not remember many cowboys from Oregon. He did a giraffe unicycle thing and a cowboy lasso trick, where he idled and his lasso encircled himself. There were interesting bullwhip tricks as well. We did not catch all of his show.

We briefly passed Liam McGlashon from Hamilton, playing Maritime fiddle tunes. I actually did not know who he was, but the tunes were catchy.

Pancho Libre, Mexico, hulas a 49kg hula hoop.

Pancho Libre from Mexico was a really good act. Though his English was not great he was able to communicate and humour the audience. He had this 49kg hula hoop, which was difficult to start and maintain. Once going he was able to hula it around his midrift and even his neck. He was also able to brace his body inside the hoop and roll around, all without squishing his fingers or falling out. Being Latin he often flirted with the female audience members. His apparatus was very unique, borrowing from Chinese wushu. He was physically very strong, able to put his body horizontal while grabbing onto a vertical pole. Most impressive.

All throughout the event we saw some pretty cool mostly Asian yoyo guys. They were very well skilled. Most had black gloves on their left hands, I guess to prevent friction burns.

Overall this year’s lineup featured more magic and less overall juggling, and very little unicycling and rola bola. It was still enjoyable to attend. I had problems finding a washroom as there were no porta potties around. If you sell food and beverage on the street you should also provide washroom facilities. The performers were very good and we had a good time.

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.

Parking Costs in China's large cities is becoming prohibitive. And so it should. Too many cars in a city reduces the quality of life for everyone.

Anyone who has recently visited China and Beijing knows that there are too many cars on the streets, thus clogging the free flow of traffic. Gone are the days of riding a bicycle. Public transit is the only way to get around, but buses are just as slow as cars. Beijing has started a lottery for potential new car buyers, which helps. The solution may lie in a scarcity of parking spaces. If you have no parking space you have no place to park your car.

I had thought that China was pretty smart when I saw that most people ride their bicycles to commute. To my dismay cars have taken over Chinese roads. Contributing to air pollution, high crash rates and a reduction in commute times for people, this is not progress in a positive direction. I have no issue with Chinese people buying cars, but when it reduces the quality of life this must stop.

Maybe the solution will come about from a scarcity of parking spots. Most people in Beijing live in apartment buildings, with limited parking. These parking spots have become much more expensive as more people want to buy a car.

Interestingly the diagram above shows Beijing’s housing costs to be 22,310 RMB/ sq M. Since 1 sq M = 10.76 sq ft, this amounts to 2, 073 RMB/ sq ft. At 7 CAD to 1 RMB, this converts to $296CAD/sq ft, very similar in cost to inexpensive housing in Toronto. Parking spots are separate in China. The average parking spot in Beijing costs 140,000 RMB, or $20,000CAD. This cost is included in most apartment buildings here in Canada, though can be priced separately in new condos.

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.