journal features

canvassing on Danforth

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2015.05.24

Today I spent 90 minutes canvassing on Danforth about the cycle lane that we want to build. By "we" I mean Cycle Toronto. Personally, I wonder if I'll live to see this particular idea come to fruition, but I think it's worth discussing.

The canvassing jaunt was an education: about 1/3 of the people we spoke to were enthusiastic about the idea - some 4-5 shops took one of our campaign stickers for the window. That includes a tattoo shop where the person we spoke to said that while they don't get a lot of cyclist traffic (she said it was mostly motorcyclists) she would be interested in seeing the safety of cyclists improved and those cyclists who flaunt the laws out of the car traffic.

Another 1/2 were interested but non-committal.

And about 1/6th were clearly against the idea, including a lady who said that when she drives downtown she sees empty cycle lanes.

When we were canvassing for the now complete Dixon contra-flow cycle lane, the response was a good deal more positive. But; it's early days.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner