Mayor and his pals giving Toronto cyclists a free ride

By JOE WARMINGTON
Last Updated: 28th May 2009, 3:53am

"Bicycles should be registered with small plates and cyclists should be formally licensed."

-- Councillor Michael Walker

---Sooner or later somebody had to stand up to these bicycle coup conspirators.

The problem is this anti-car, bike-agenda crowd is in charge and changing Toronto life as we know it.

At least Councillor Michael Walker plans on keeping them real. It was in the mid-1950s -- some 27 years before he was first elected 27 years ago -- that the city of Toronto last licensed bicycles.

And now the veteran councillor believes it's time for it to happen again.

If the people orchestrating the City of Toronto's bike takeover want a piece of the road, they're going to have to be just as responsible as everybody else who's on it.

"It just makes sense," Walker said. "At the next meeting of council next month, I will bring forward a notice of two motions."

One will be that all people commuting on bikes on Toronto roads be licensed, their bikes licensed and insured, and that it become mandatory for all riders to wear CSA-approved helmets. He can also see potential training programs and even written tests brought in if necessary.

"And the cost of the licensing and testing would cover the expense to administer this," he said, saying safety is the No. 1 concern.

"Licensing bikes would do two things: Legitimize them being on the road but also ensure there are consequences for how they operate."

Hear, hear.

Nice to see some common sense coming out of City Hall. It seems lately if you don't have a bike helmet on in that chamber, you don't have a say. It's sad because the way it is for bikes on the streets now, and the way this mayor and his cabal would like it to be, is just not safe for anybody.

And it seems only fair, since the bicycle cultists are flexing their muscles so much to take over the streets that they should pay for their share of it, too.

After all it costs five cents in this city for a plastic bag to bring home your groceries and, it seems, you need a licence to be permitted to breathe.

But somehow it's free of charge, and pretty well out of the scope of the law, to be a complete menace on a bicycle anywhere at any time.

Yet if you're a retailer and say to hell with Mayor Miller and his phony jet-junket environmentalists and don't sell the bags, you could face a $1,000 fine.

There isn't the same strict enforcement for the much-loved bike culture in Toronto and there seem to be no fines levied.

There are good cyclists, but there isn't a red light many cyclists wouldn't run or a rule of the road they wouldn't break. And it's all done without repercussions. The Highway Traffic Act is difficult to enforce when you don't know who's on the bike.

There's a licence, fee or fine for just about every aspect of life for the average citizen, but virtually no consequences for cyclists, who it seems want to squeeze the car off the road.

LUNACY

It's lunacy. But it's happening.

For example, if the City of Toronto Pet Police knock on your door and your dog or cat doesn't have the required $50-$60 licences, you could face a $240 fine and the city says that if "you are taken to court under the current law, the maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine."

And if you go through a red light in a car and you're caught on camera, you'll get a $500 fine in the mail to go with the invented-out-of-thin-air $60 car registration fee that you had to pay to be out there in the first place.

If you buy a property, you'll pay two land transfer taxes, face a fine if you're driving in an High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane with less than two people, if you have the wrong garbage bag, light bulb, recycling box, if you idle while waiting for someone for more than three minutes, if you don't have a permit for that addition to your backyard deck.

And if you're thirsty for a bottle of water and you're at City Hall, you'll be out of luck because they've put duct tape over the water button -- effectively banning bottled water.

But do whatever the hell you want on your bicycle. You are anonymous, untouchable and you're king, as evidenced by this insane proposal to replace the traffic lane on Jarvis St. with a bike lane.

"It's ridiculous," Walker said of the left's move to close down a lane on Jarvis for bike lane. "The bicycle is not an alternative to a car. It's like a windmill is not a replacement for a power generating station. It's great when it's windy. Bikes are like that -- great when there is no snow on the ground and sunny."

It'll be fun to watch this spend-hungry council, hellbent on sucking the life out of taxpayers, engineer this one to keep their environmental friends from paying their freight and instead sticking it to regular Torontonians.

You know it's coming but bravo to Walker for trying.

Even Miller so far hasn't ruled out the idea.

"Regarding licensing, the mayor hasn't made up his mind yet as there are issues with the Highway Traffic Act which is a provincial responsibility," said spokesman Don Wanagas.

Too bad the mayor wasn't as unsure about charging a fee and taxing or fining everybody for everything else!

JOE.WARMINGTON@SUNMEDIA.CA