Cycle Commuting in Sydney, Australia
It is clearly evident by the popularity of large SUVs here in Toronto that many Canadians here merely pay lip service to conserving the world’s diminishing gas supplies.
I see them every day driving their large vehicles to work, the only person in their SUV. Do they think they impress other people? Maybe they feel good driving such a monster? I’m not sure, but they certainly waste a whole lot more gas than they should.
Sure if they have the cash, or they could lease, that they can purchase and drive whatever vehicle they wish, but this behaviour should be discouraged. There is usually no need to drive such a wasteful vehicle each and every day. I look towards Europe and Asia for inspiration on this subject: Small vehicles are the norm, not the exception.
Gas here in Canada, now around $0.969/litre, is obviously too cheap to encourage people to not be wasteful. We as a society want to feel good about protecting the environment and the ozone layer, for the good of our children, but turn around and still purchase such vehicles. It’s a sham, one that should be clearly pointed out. Green initiatives are good to talk about but should not require us to change our lifestyle.
Recently there was great debate here about adding more bike lanes in the City of Toronto. What a kerfuffle from the car people. Toronto is so dominated by the automobile that even with allocated funds for bicycle lanes, few are being built. Those that are are easily blocked by delivery trucks and taxis that stop in these lanes, forcing cyclists to veer into traffic. Toronto drivers are very intolerant of cyclists. How green is that? How green is it when these cyclists get run over and otherwise hurt by inattentive drivers talking on cell phones and sipping their morning coffee?
Toronto as a city needs to get with the times and look, again, at the improvements made in Europe and Asia (China does this right) for mass transit and bicycle commuting. More money does not necessarily mean a better lifestyle.
There’s a lot of cultural history that goes into the design of an urban centre. In the 1970s, your neighbourhood in Scarborough was mostly farmland. In the early 1900s, my neighbourhood in South Riverdale was considered so far from downtown that Don Station was the first stop east of Union Station. (That stop would now be 10 minutes by the Queen streetcar directly to the Eaton Centre at Yonge Street).
Automobiles were central to 1950s and 1960s suburbanization, and it’s been a trend that has continued to the current day. The sprawl isn’t just tough for bicyclists, it’s also expensive to support with public transporation.
“Free market economics” doesn’t really reflect the cost of automobiles and roads, any more than airfares reflect the cost of operating airlines and airports. Prices should be higher, and current negative externalities aren’t bundled into true values.