A story of cause and effect: Last November, Ontario banned cities from using speed safety cameras to issue tickets. Reckless speeding immediately surged in Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, and cities throughout the province. A 🧵 about my latest in Bloomberg (gift link)
What Happens When Speed Cameras Get Shut Off
In 2025, Ontario banned automated traffic enforcement. Now the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit has surged, according to traffic data.
bloomberg.com
It blows my mind the amount of guff @swanboatsteve.bsky.social gets for pointing out that there is an enormous amount of operational improvements on the table that wouldn't cost a penny in infrastructure or red paint.
Steve Munro@swanboatsteve.bsky.social · 2d agoThe problem is that at the political level the focus is on physical changes without acknowledgement of the service issues, and there's a sense that the first will fix the second. TTC often presents issues this way as it puts the focus outside their organization. (1)
Things I and friends have done to calm an angry abusive man from further escalating and killing us or our children: -Smiled -Kept normal schedules in order not to trigger a fight -Appeased with kind acts (cooking, cleaning, favors) -Forced friendly tones and words
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 3d agoRep. Max Miller: "My former wife has claimed that during a custody exchange at my home that day, I assaulted her…If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later?"
No soft fingernail touches allowed, meanwhile Crowder is having the time of his life joking about people being thrown from helicopters
Sam Cole@samleecole.bsky.social · 5d agoa bunch of popular ASMR artists lost their channels forever this week, after YouTube cited them for violating terms against "sexually gratifying" content: www.404media.co/youtube-asmr...
My big realization: how many child-related trips (schools, daycares, libraries, parks) don't line up well with transit. Like here. Transit is barely faster than walking (cycling is on par with driving). I've always liked cycling, but I've learned it's even more important for car-free families.
ellen teapot 🇨🇦🏳️⚧️@ellenteapot.ca · 4d agoWhat do you think are some of the important oversights on families with kids in the transit world?
How badly has #misinformation been normalized? An increasing % of people believe the unhinged idea that the COVID vaccine killed more than COVID. 27% think true‼️ ONLY 39% know definitely false‼️ Reality: COVID killed > 7 million. Vaccine saved millions & severe adverse reaction extremely rare.
one reason Canadian politics is the way it is because people expect the Feds + local municipalities to do what provincial government does
Sharon 🪳🌹@sharonk.bsky.social · 5d agothe vast majority of this is shaped by the province 😭
Every time a pro cyclist is hit by a driver it's a good reminder of how silly so much of the victim blaming around bicyclists is. These are the best, most skilled riders in the world and even they get hit! Turns out it's not about the rider.
skáld@danglinghemmie.bsky.social · 5d agoprimoz roglic hit by a car, nobody is safe from it
Something I'll never understand - if I want to make substantial enough changes to my house, it has to go through a neighbourhood consultation process, but someone on my block can buy a vehicle that significantly increases the chances one of my kids gets run over.
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 5d agoWhich vehicles most endanger the drivers of other cars? Giant pickup trucks — and the Dodge Charger Source: www.iihs.org/news/detail/...
The only parts of Toronto's transit system that are "at capacity" are pieces of the bus network in suburban areas where they feed into the subway and where the solutions to the capacity problem are the easiest. There's nowhere in Toronto that should turn away development because of transit.
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
theonion.com
TikTok has incredible moderation team. Our InfoWars video about Multiple Horse Theory — the idea that there are many horses in the world and not just one — has been fully deemed misinformation and lost the formal appeals process. Confirmed by Larry Ellison: There is only one horse on Earth.
When we hollow out our local newsrooms, they too often are left relying on police reports as "news". That's a real problem.
Turns out people are a lot more fond of European-style mid-rises when they’re opposing high-rises — than when it’s actually time to broadly legalize mid-rises.
Justin McElroy 🇨🇦@jmcelroy.bsky.social · last wk.For as long as I’ve been a reporter in this city the complaint has been that we build too many giant luxury condos in a few places and not enough medium density housing across neighbourhoods. But this week reaffirmed why that approach is so baked into the DNA and political culture of Vancouver.
My opinion about cable cars as urban transit is the same as for ferries (and "BRTs") They work better than other modes in specific geographic conditions and demand pattern. But they aren't that "one simple trick" that can replace other modes cheaply/more easily, as they are too often marketed.
𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇@taras-grescoe.com · last wk.Can a cable car be a legit form of urban transit? I took a ride on Europe's newest, and longest, aerial tramway, the C1 in #Paris, to find out. (In the video: we're overflying a national highway + a high-speed rail line.) More in this week's HIGH SPEED dispatch: www.highspeed.blog/up-where-the...
Meanwhile, in Canadian mainstream media.... I searched CTV News, CBC News, Global News and the Globe and Mail for any coverage of Shopify in the last 24 hours. Nothing (except business reporting from the Globe, nothing on the CEO suggesting poor people should have less of a say in our democracy)
Rachel Gilmore@rachelgilmore.bsky.social · last wk.Very cool that Shopify’s CEO thinks the poor should have far less of a vote than the rich. Still worth that ad read money, folks?
"As a society, we are horrified by gun violence, but generally give scant attention to deaths on our roads that result from motorists’ choices." From @seanyyz.bsky.social
Where’s the outrage when pedestrians are killed?
Birchmount Road and Lawrence Avenue East, Scarborough On Friday, July 10, the driver of a westbound Toyota RAV4 SUV drove through a red light on Lawrence Avenue East and struck another vehicle trav…
seanmarshall.ca
As a boy, my grandparents wouldn't dream of buying a Ford b/c Henry Ford—who was long dead by then—had been a rabid antisemite. 40 years later, I'm amazed that so many people who deplore xenophobia remain willing to buy a Tesla.
And not just in design, but in implementation. Victoria has functionally eliminated the public consultation process for bike infra. It just gets built out like any other infrastructure gets built out.
Politicians from Brad Bradford to Josh Matlow are talking about more policing but none of them are talking about the widespread corruption we’re seeing in the Toronto force (or across Canada). I think this is a big problem.
Whomst among us could have predicted that a rebate program specifically designed to ensure low income households came out ahead - especially with provinces letting social assistance programs atrophy - would leave them poorer when cancelled
End of carbon tax rebates a financial hit for Canada’s poorest, research shows
Rebates were tax-free payments that compensated consumers for the cost of carbon taxes
theglobeandmail.com
"you have to go to vaughan to see the odyssey in 70mm IMAX because of doug ford" is one of those things that sounds made up but is true apparently
Alex Bozikovic@alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 2w agoThinking about the fact that Toronto has two 70MM IMAX projectors - at Ontario Science Centre and at Ontario Place, the world's first IMAX theatre - that have been closed by Doug Ford for nonsensical reasons.
Thinking about the fact that Toronto has two 70MM IMAX projectors - at Ontario Science Centre and at Ontario Place, the world's first IMAX theatre - that have been closed by Doug Ford for nonsensical reasons.
Nina Metz@ninametz.bsky.social · 2w agoWhy Aren’t There More Imax 70mm Screens for ‘The Odyssey’? variety.com/2026/film/ne...
You know it's super depressing as a Canadian living in the US that the feeling most Americans have on Canada now ranges from outright hostility for our existence to at best ambivalence across the entire political spectrum. Love that the way a demented fantasy of grandpa morphs into national policy
Sky Marchini@sky.skymarchini.net · 2w agoholy shit. www.cbc.ca/news/world/t...
Probably more helpful to think of them not so much as “Canadian wildfires” but rather “climate change wildfires currently consuming Canada”
Nuit is an exception. It’s run by the City and its security planning is very advanced. Toronto’s locally-run festivals and events, when faced with the security requirements we’re sure to see passed by well-meaning Councillors (to say nothing of insurance premiums), will have no choice but to fold.
Mark Shaw@markshawtoronto.bsky.social · 3w agoReading the response from the BIA & TLN Media Group, we’re probably losing Salsa on St Clair. Fair enough, you can’t force festival organizers to run a festival they don’t want to run anymore. What about Nuit Blanche? TIFF? Caribana? We still have a ton left I’m worried about 😞
Toronto-area PC MPPs have billed taxpayers over $100K for Toronto overnight stays
Toronto-area PC MPPs have billed taxpayers over $100K for Toronto overnight stays
Expenses that ‘did not meet the spirit of the rules will be reimbursed’: premier’s office
dlvr.it
Trump doesn’t force people to do bad things. All he did was show people they could get away with being horrible if they really wanted to, and a lot of powerful people decided they didn’t need to pretend anymore. Especially those in influential positions who could push back but did not.
