I am, arguably, an average urban Torontonian: I am 30. I am soon-to-be-married. I work in an office downtown. I live a 20-minute streetcar ride (or 20-minute bike ride, if you prefer... and you should!) from work. I love finding and trying new restaurants. I don't own a car. I do own a condo.

However, because I am biking Toronto every day, I have less of a right to the streets that my tax dollars help pay for. All of us biking Toronto, TTCing Toronto, walking Toronto are ranked #2 to those who drive cars. It is a little-known fact that the only tax that drivers pay that the rest of us don't is the gas tax, almost all of which goes into highway construction and maintenance (although a small portion of it is now going towards public transit). The streets of Toronto - those ones you walk and bike on every single day, are paid by local property taxes - which come from all of us - directly (owning property) and/or indirectly (supporting landlords and/or buying stuff at businesses who pay property taxes).

I'm sick and tired of having to wait 5 minutes for a break in traffic to cross my street in mid-block (our grocery store is across the street from our condo), because society thinks that roads are for cars and no one else.

Modern road grids were designed for horse travel thousands of years ago by the Romans. They were paved thanks to cycling advocates 100 years ago. They are not for cars. Cars have just taken over.

Therefore, it is with rage and disbelief that I read articles like Montreal Police Declare War On Jaywalking Tradition (which I also saw on TV). 10 pedestrians have been killed in Montreal (a wonderful jaywalking city that I love), so police are starting a 5 Year Program to ticket jaywalkers.

Where's the program that tickets drivers who almost run me over when I'm walking across the street (at lights) on a green? What about the driver who honks at me because she had to wait for me to walk across before she could turn right? What about the drivers who seem to aim for the 6-month old in the stroller that my fiance walks with (Tracy is employed as a nanny)?

If any Montrealers read this page, I'd like to encourage you to jaywalk more. You own the streets as much as drivers do. They try to break the law to get around faster, so why shouldn't you?

I'll be doing more here in Toronto in solidarity with you. I'll go out walking right now and mess car traffic up on my street by crossing mid-block. I'll come visit you a lot too, since you have a great city and all, and I'll jaywalk all over the place while spending lots of money in your town.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I'll also be writing up some new series of posts like my 8 Secrets For Cycling In Traffic (which was recently linked by the cycling blog powerhouse known as BikePortland.org. Thanks Jonathan! ) about some ideas I have about how we can all take back the streets (in Toronto and elsewhere). Darren will be posting them in early June for me (I'll be getting married and lying on a beach, mountain biking, and swimming with dolphins in Jamaica), and then I'll start putting them into practice this summer when I don't have to worry about helping plan a wedding.

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