From My Bottom Step

London’s Sidewalk Snow Removal Sucks

Referring to the issue of clearing snow from sidewalks in Cobourg, Councillor Stan Frost is quoted as saying “We’re heavily biased towards automobiles. Streets are well cleared but we need some more creative thinking to deal with sidewalk snow removal.” (‘Sidewalk clearing issue raises squall…’; Northumberland Today)

He could just as easily have been talking about London. In fact, I wish he would, since members of London’s City Council normally don’t seem to have much respect for pedestrians.

I walked over to a neighbourhood restaurant for a sandwich and a coffee earlier today. It’s only about 1.5 blocks, and most of that walk is along a major arterial. So my expectation that the city would have managed to have a sidewalk snowplow attend to the recent significant accumulation was not misplaced. But what I didn’t anticipate was the perfectly useless job that they did of it. Continue Reading

Brenda’s Story

What do you do if the snow isn’t being cleared from a disabled parking spot? Well, if your name happens to be Brenda Ryan, you don’t take the property owner’s “NO” for an answer. This is Brenda’s story…

Bicyclist Nailed By Snowplow

It appears that London drivers have struck again. This time it’s a bicyclist who was headed south on Wharncliffe at Savoy. According to A-News, “it appears he was hit by the blade of a snowplow waiting to turn onto Wharncliffe.” And of course, the common refrain: “There is no word yet on charges.”

Pedestrian Dies After Sunday’s Collision

According to an article on the LFP website (“Pedestrian dies after being hit by car”; 2008/12/05), 55 y.o. Joan Pettigrew died yesterday from the injuries sustained from being struck by a car on Sunday.

Sgt. Tom O’Brien always seems to have some unspecific excuse for not laying a charge against drivers in these cases. In this instance, he’s quoted as saying that “environmental conditions played a role in the incident as well as the choice to cross Hyde Park Road at that location.”

What conditions? What location, exactly? Is he trying to suggest that the woman was engaged in an illegal behaviour without actually saying so?

Why is there always so little information revealed when pedestrians and bicyclists are struck by automobiles? Are we likely to see any follow-up investigative reporting by LFP or A-News? Continue Reading

A Rare Victory for London Pedestrians

Earlier this evening, In a nailbiter, London City Council responded to the snowclearing request by White Oaks mums by approving it as a pilot project this winter.

The odds were all against it.

First it had to get leave to be discussed. And then it had to survive an attempt to get it deferred for consideration several months down the road. And then it had to survive a final vote…. Continue Reading

Another Pedestrian Nailed

A 55 year-old woman was rushed to hospital around the supper time last night after being hit by a vehicle on Hyde Park Road. As usual in vehicle/pedestrian cases, details are very scarce.

Reminder: At it’s meeting this afternoon, Council will consider the request for pathway snowclearing in White Oaks that failed to get the support of ETC last week and which would reduce some of the risk for … Continue Reading

Google Transit and the LTC

I had the opportunity this past week to be able to watch some of the proceedings in the Web 2.0 Summit for the City of Toronto. This Summit was organized as an interactive forum to explore how Web 2.0 technology can change the way governments interact with citizens, create policies and make decisions. It was centred around the member municipalities that make up the Greater Toronto Area … Continue Reading

Another Hit-and-Run

According to the LFP website (“Police seek food-covered car…”) a 40-year-old woman is in hospital for “not life-threatening injuries” after being struck in the area of UWO around 6:15.

More details if they become available.

LTC Knows the Fare Hike is Bad

From staff report #13 in the 2008/09/03 LTC agenda:

The issues and challenges…of the 2009 operating budget…are…similar to those faced in the early 1990’s… In response to the issues of the early to mid 1990’s, London Transit raised fares, cut both on-road and support services… Accordingly, the combined effect…

36% decline in ridership
44% decline in rides per capita
…
And this also: “…the extent of the increase is expected to result in a loss of 131,700 trips, which…is considered a reasonably acceptable loss… Continue Reading

LTC Needs Your Complaints

Despite the frequency with which I mention it here, I feel that I have to keep hammering away with the message. Because according to the LTC, London’s transit users just don’t seem to be getting it.

According to staff report #12 on the 2008/09/03 meeting agenda, complaints about conventional service were up significantly for the first 6 months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. Even so, there were only 1,294 of them.

Does that mean that most LTC users are happy with the system? Continue Reading