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George Bell

@george.borkbork.ca

560 followers 300 following 3.9K posts

Toronto, but been travelling a lot, road safety, bikes, scooters, movies and walking… borkbork.ca

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George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · Feb 2

I have created a starter pack for the City of Toronto, councillors and visible staff…please let me know if I’m missing anyone…if you are verified and want to replace the X echo accounts with official ones please DM me…also if there is anyone missing please post in the comments!

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George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

They also need a traffic/pedestrian security system for events along Queen and bay…that can be automatically turned on (ie bollards)…and they would do well to install permanent district audio for crowd control and event audio (almost the entire core should have this, for many reasons)…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

Fireworks happen above the building, photos happen that way as well…we may be getting to the point where the garage actually needs to be redeveloped into an underground mall with connections to Ontario line, and path…maybe time to start fresh…dig a pit, shore it up and build again…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

That said, my biggest problem with the square is the addition of the stage in the wrong orientation to the direction that events happen at the square….everything used to happen south->north…the east>west orientation breaks the square for large events…

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George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

When I spoke to the committee about the relatively simple act of running electricity to the folks along Queen street so they can turn off the generators it was like talking to the most obtuse wall you’ve ever seen…they didn’t even recognize the problem…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

The nice thing about this design is that it essentially allows for keeping cars out of that middle transit lane…whereas the Toronto bike lane design forces cars into the streetcar lane…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

In that third photo there is about a foot drop to track level…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

Also, I saw one of those, but it was for cars…in Estonia…could be useful on some roads in the suburbs.

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 19h

Wish these guys at transit stops had integrated heating elements to keep the platform snow free in winter.

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

The fully are. There is a pilot that has to be opted in by municipalities. Many have - including mississauga and Ottawa and many others…Toronto hasn’t joined it yet. But it seems there would be demand…lots of people using them even without the pilot.

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

The reality is that a lot of people don’t want to pedal (or can’t)…and will never regularly use e-bikes or bikes…after I got hit riding my bike…I used an e-scooter for a year to allow my knee to heal…the other alternative was to drive…

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George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Yup, can’t grow Micromobility if you ban it…docked scooters are everywhere these days and compatible with the bike share docks…most of the excuses the city has put forward are bunk…

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George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Here is Chicago…what do you notice?

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

It’s actually scooters. Here is Chicago…almost 40% of usage is e-scooters…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Definitely lagging Chicago…what could we do to catch up?

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Private capital has been more effective at large and quick expansions, and building ridership quickly…neither are true of public capital…it’s funny that Toronto is so stretched for public capital that a lot of Torontos actual expansion has been from private capital in the form of advertising…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Most people would say that Torontos bikeshare public nature is good…but a lot of cities have built out entire bikeshare networks without any public capital…for a service that is unprofitable, this is unfortunate…since the city could have used that capital elsewhere and maybe returned a profit…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

This is what you see from Europe. Not gonna rely on a service where this is the first experience. I usually try to signup before I land…especially if there are ID or other requirements for e-devices…anyways, no docks at the airport…so I am likely already committed to transit…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Anyways…city council is not logical on this point by being worried about battery fires, but not letting us park e-scooters on public property…i could charge it outside…but why risk enforcement?

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Also I’ve said it before but if we are adding all these electrified docks, it kinda would make sense to add private battery charging to them as well in the form of a cabinet that attaches to the dock…

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George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Honestly I think Toronto bikeshare should work with a lot of small Toronto towns to add bikeshare…bulk purchase through Toronto, major maintenance of docks with Toronto, digital back and front end with Toronto…everything else with the town (bike maintenance, rebalance, capital and operations)…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

The city not being open to hybrid dock/floating bike system in the suburbs also adds to their capital spend and slow expansion…every dock is money not spent on bikes/scooters…and while important in places with limited space, docks are a waste in places with lots of it…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Their website isn’t even accessible outside of Canada (Europe/asia) - so they are leaving a huge number of tourist trips on the floor due to their inability to properly secure their website…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

They lag almost all their peers. Without e-scooters they won’t hit 16m (it’s 40% of Chicago’s rides), and their ebike pricing is uncompetitive with transit…it’s good they are working towards presto and ttc integration, but it can’t be surface level, 2 hour transfer integration is needed…

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George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

TPA also has a lot of money, so they can invest in long term capital programs without much need to raise taxes or deal with a complicated budget process that is mostly focused on safety…

George Bell @george.borkbork.ca · 1d

Because TPA “owns” a lot of surface property - including roadside parking, and TTC doesn’t…they also had preexisting laws that allow them to use sidewalk space and other public space for things like payment kiosks…ttc has less of that…I also think it would have been hard to change the TTC’s bylaws

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