Ganging up: TRANSIT

Serendipity, once again!

It must have been already up in the air for me to connect to it so accurately, akashic style.
Barely a month ago, I wrote a post, part bitchy rant, part serious analysis, at the end of which I recommended that cyclists should not to entrust their hopes and advocacy efforts to other "cyclists" but to any grouping of the following:

- Pedestrian associations 

- Health associations of all kinds promoting sound lifestyle policies and comprehensive disease prevention

- Child obesity concern groups 

- Child safety groups

- Lots of school administrations would love to see car traffic decrease in their areas

- Folks against sound pollution and urban noise (they exist)

- Elder leisure groups who like to walk and visit their towns

- Architectural heritage folks who like to preserve cachet and correct the mistakes from the 60s and 70s (like the movement for the removal of urban highways)

- Better living, livable environment folks

- Voluntary simplicity folks

- Those in the degrowth movement (stronger in Europe)

- Peak oil activists (those ones really rock the cashbah)

- Those for the empowerment of minorities, of people living in poorer neighbourhoods and for the integration of immigrants

- Student associations

- Political parties who are very clear on cycling infrastructure issues

- And of course urban planners of the new school type

 And I concluded:

"That's a lot of folks. Properly ganged up, there is no reason for the situation not to change fast."

You can read the whole post here.

Little did I know that merely a month later, such a gang would really get created for the specific purpose of lobbying for better transportation alternatives!

This group calls itself TRANSIT, "Alliance pour le financement des transports collectifs au Québec", i.e. alliance for the (proper) financing of collective transportation in Quebec.

It is composed of the following organisations:

• Accès transports viables, a group concentrating on viable transportation alternatives in the Quebec City region;

• Association des usagers du transport adapté de Longueuil, an association of disabled users of Longueuil's public transit service;

• Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique, a provincial association against air pollution;

• Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montréal/Montreal urban ecology centre, focuses on sustainable urban development and the management of urban affairs. They are the current organising host of Ecocity 2011, a conference that ended this past week;

• Coalition québécoise sur la problématique du poids, a group focusing on weight issues, i.e. obesity, particularly with regards to children;

• Communauto, of course, our famous, successful and much appreciated car-share program had to be part of the gang;

• Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain – CSN, a labour union. Not sure what their contribution is but hey, the more, the merrier!

• Conseil québécois sur le poids et la santé, another group dealing with weight issues and their prevention through social, environmental and behavioural changes;

• Conseil régional de l’environnement Capitale nationale, a group defending the environment and promoting sustainable development in the Quebec City area;

• Conseil régional de l’environnement de Laval, same as above for the Laval area;

• Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal, same a above for the Montreal area;

• Conseil régional de l’environnement et du développement durable de l’Outaouais, same as above, for the Ottawa area;

• Convercité, an agency promoting the optimisation of the urban space and environment;

• ENvironnement JEUnesse, an organisation focusing on sensitizing and educating youth about various environmental issues, including active transportation;

• Équiterre, a well-known NGO active in organic farming, alternative transportation, fair trade and local consumption, climate change, green advocacy in general;

• Faculté d’aménagement de l’Université de Montréal, University of Montreal school of urbanism, architecture and design;

• Fondation David Suzuki, a well-known environmental advocacy NGO that became pretty vocal recently on cycling issues;

• Forum URBA 2015, a group ralated to the University of Quebec in Montreal, dealing and organising conferences on urbanism and tourism;

• Greenpeace, well of course, everybody knows this one;

• Mobiligo, a consulting company specialising in commuting and mobility management;

• Mobili.T, a centre for mobility management and the promotion of alternative transportation in the Quebec City area;

• Regroupement national des conseils régionaux de l’environnement du Québec, yet another group pushing for sustainable development. It is a federation of all the "Conseils régionaux" above;

• Table de concertation des aînés de l’île de Montréal, an organisation focusing on the 55 plus group, on issues of well-being well-aging, agism and autonomy. This is very important to me, as I think the seniors will become a very powerful force in imposing the concept of livable, walkable and quiet cities in the future. Aging in the suburbs is simply bullshit. One cannot be reliant on a car past a certain age;

• Vélo Québec, of course;

• Vivre en Ville, an organisation supporting livable communities, alternative transportation, green urbanism etc.;

• Voyagez Futé, a centre for mobility management and the promotion of alternative transportation in the Montreal area;

Some of them I already knew, others I discovered today.
These folks, whether individually or collectively have done and are still doing far more for urban cycling than any cyclist could ever dream of.
Cycling organisations overall have been complete failures at obtaining significant improvements in cycling conditions for their members. Political activism, better urban planning, green advocacy and image makeover (Cycle chic and others) have done far more in far less time.

I am still in shock due to the timing of all of this!
I wish this coalition all the best, and I hope we all reap the fruits of all these advocacy efforts.

Peak Oil: How will you ride the slide?

Peak Oil is round the corner... How will we ride the slide?

On our bicycles of course!! And in style at that!
Bring it on baby, we're ready.


*********

Watch part two of the serie - "What Peak Oil means: the End of Suburbia"
Watch part three of the serie - "How to survive Peak Oil: the power of community"

Sleeping with the ennemy

On July 15^th, a dude called Christian Déjoie was brave enough to speak up (and lucky enough to be granted a column) in La Presse about one of the most terrifying road experiences a Montreal cyclist could ever face: the dreaded encounter with a STM bus driver. The STM is Montreal's public transportation service. These guys are notorious bicycle haters and they seem to derive no greater pleasure than harassing cyclists on the road.

Everything Christian Déjoie describes in his piece, I have experienced... from the inside, i.e. while riding the bus. Well, yes, because it sometimes happens that I ride the bus. And I have seen some of these psychopaths in action, maneuvering purposefully to squeeze a cyclist against the curb by accelerating, waving on the left and then closing the angle on the right, some even slamming the brakes. To the point that once, an outcry erupted at the front of the bus with random normal citizens protesting this behaviour. The smug asshole answered with a pervert smile: «Inquietez-vous pas, il va être correct!», i.e. «Don't worry, he's gonna be fine!», as in «Don't worry folks, I am a professional (harasser) I do this all the time, so far they (my victims) have all survived!!».

Well, faut croire que sometimes they don't. The STM is a notorious contributor to the yearly cyclists massacre.

Actually, it looks like the STM is determined to become Montreal cycling community's worst enemy:

1. They have historically opposed any type of cycling accommodations, starting with access to the metro. There was a time when you could bring in ladders, ironing boards etc. but no bicycles ("Deux roues un avenir", Claire Morissette, p.194). Finally, access was granted but limited to impractical hours, i.e. 10 am to 3 pm and after 7 pm, i.e. forget about it. How complicated is it to reserve an entire car for cyclists?

2. They oppose improvement and innovation. They are currently fighting against bicycle racks. Watch this:

http://www.globalmontreal.com/drivers+union+collide+over+bike+rack+addition/5011815/story.html?releasePID=XCVI3ckLrSTRGa_rAmWm9BiTwMSf84Py

Bicycle racks litterally had to be shoved up their asses as the slugs found them to be dangerous. You heard it: everywhere else in the world, they work fine, but in Montreal, they will be dangerous. Of course, given the way these guys behave on the road, no surprise if carnage increases. 

Hey, maybe they can use bicycle racks to mow down even more cyclists? More effective than the squeezing technique!!!

3. They oppose bicycle lanes. They fought tooth and nail against the St Urbain bike lane.

Every minor improvement is a struggle and has to be forced down their throats. Their main argument is usually, whatever is being proposed is dangerous and it will force them to slow down. Big freaking deal!

Systematically, Montreal cyclists are surprised, hurt and feel betrayed.

Why is any of it such a shocker? After all, most of these STM guys are not Montrealers at all : they live in the suburbs (Laval, Longueuil, Repentigny etc.) and like most proud 450s, probably hate Montreal and everything typical about it with a pathologically consuming passion. Proof is, during winter storms, the main reason for the public transportation network stalemate is not so much the snow in itself (i.e. blocking the roads) but the fact that bus and metro operators are themselves stuck in traffic, in snowbanks, in their own driveways, just like every motorist out there!

How can anyone expect a public transportation service to run properly in a city of which most operators live in other cities?

Why don't more Montreal cyclists realise any of this and stay damn well away from bus drivers?

Because we are d'indécrottables romantiques. True.

Granted, Yves Montand is French, and so are those images. But you, know, France/Quebec, Quebec/France... Kif-kif bourricot!!

Anyhow, Montreal cyclists are total romantics. We have this bubble gum idea of Public Service and Public Transportation. We, deep inside our collective progressive and liberal hearts, firmly believe in it. We support it. We defend it. We are its most faithful users comes winter. We analyse it all the time. We blog about it (ahem). We're armchair and desktop urban planning experts. 
And in that cotton candy utopian mental world of ours, in Montreal cyclists and public transportation lovingly go hand in hand, riding poetically into the sunset.

Ahem!

Bizous bizous les Bisounours!

Right...

Now, back in the reality of the real world, going to the police with your harassment story is a complete waste of time. Just like sexual discrimination or racial discrimination, unless you have (credible i.e. non-cyclists) witnesses and hard proof, you're doomed. It's your word against theirs. And you're the irresponsible hippy and their are the respectable public servant who would never lie. They've got the moral and social status immunity. And cops would never dream of going after fellow public servants.

Even those organised enough to have a camera on them recording the whole scene were not able to get the police to move their asses.

As in this one:

Straightforward right? License plate in plain view, aggression on video, what else do you need?

Well, it turns out, things were more complex than they seemed:

"Although the registered keeper of the car was easily traceable it seems that on the day in question the vehicle was left unlocked with the keys in the ignition, only for it to be taken without consent but somehow later returned to the owner by person or persons unknown.

Could happen I suppose, after all there are some very considerate, violently thuggish car thieves out there who sometimes repent and, racked with guilt, simply return the stolen vehicle to its rightful owner completely undamaged."

Realistic and totally believable right? Turns out that "before this clip the driver had forced one of the riders off the road while going through a speed restriction, had stopped and got out to verbally abuse the rider, had got back in and driven off, clipping the handlebar of this cyclist with his wing mirror."

Criminal right? Should get the police all worked up right? The sandwich is in front of their mouth, all they need to do is open their traps and chew it off right?

Well no, that's still too hard. 

Bottom line, the criminal ended up turning himself in, so I guess the corrupted British police, had no choice but to, reluctantly, finally handle that case...

Back in Montreal, were our very own cowboys think nothing of shooting randomly left and right, and killing an innocent citizen, all of that to apprehend some mentally disturbed homeless holding a knife.

How do you want these guys, Christian, to take our complaints seriously?

**********

UPDATE: "Me too I cycle!" one of the STM assholes speaks up!