Mayor Hazel bikesHere's to all you softies out there who are too afraid to break a sweat by biking to work. She's 87 years old, the Mayor of a burgeoning, sprawling city, and she'll be biking to work for Car Free Day! Mayor Hazel gave a matter-of-fact interview to the National Post on her proposed ride to work.
Q: So how far of a bike ride is that?
A: It is quite a distance. I can’t take transit, because no transit comes anywhere near my house. I’d have to walk quite a distance to get anywhere near a transit stop. The bike ride will take a while. It takes me 10 to 15 minutes by car, so you can judge that.
Q: You said you have been practising. So do you bike around quite a bit?
A: No I don’t, I don’t have time. But I do grab it when I can.
Q: What kind of bike do you ride?
A: I don’t know, a regular bike.
Q: Why did you decide to do this?
A: I just thought I would try to set an example. I certainly can’t ride a bicycle to work everyday because I need my car to drive around to different appointments, so you can’t use a bicycle. It’s impractical. I just thought that for that day, to emphasize the importance of it, I would ride. And I am going to wear a helmet because I wish I saw more people with helmets on when they’re riding bicycles.
[Photo Credit: The National Post]
Comments
geoffrey (not verified)
Hazel on Roads
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 13:16"Roads were built for cars and trucks and buses" she spewed when presented with a proposed network of bikelanes and community trails for Mississauga. I wish I could see her reaction the first time she gets buzzed or hooked.
That said, it is at least a display of support on some level. Where that level may be is yet to be seen.
hamish (not verified)
it's great!
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 13:39It'sa true example for all of us .
And yes Geoffrey, let her get some road experience of the 4 and 2-wheeled passholes and potholes and the full impact of how fully "carrupt" our roads are.
One of the people I chatted with bout Bloor bike stuff beyond Miller at last Friday's poignant Allan Sparrow memorialsit do had this great news of a successful New Zealand effort called Bike with the Mayor where - sit down and breathe folks - the Mayors of some places actually hold contests to see how many of their citizens they can lead on a bike ride, usually held on Sundays according to Mr. Mudge.
Here in Caronto the Carrupt, it takes a octogenarian to bike the talk it would seem.
And pardon the expression, and hoping that some other leader decides to emulate Ms. McCallion and perhaps suffers a tenth of what Geoffrey's gone through - if some leading politician was hit, would that be "bleedership"?
Maybe we could help out by giving special vests with pictures of some special politician on the back? being a better target for the cartillery to somehow "not" see? Ms. Gostick would say that the easiest way to murder someone around here is to use a car...., if you're caught, no penalties.
Luke Siragusa
Hurricane
Thu, 09/11/2008 - 22:42Hurricane Hazel, what a woman: a principled politician, an authentic administrator, an authentic personality.
But I often wonder what, if any, misgivings she harbors over the direction Mississauga has taken during her tenure. The city epitomizes so much of what is wrong with contemporary development patterns; it is inimical to cyclists and pedestrians and voracious in its hunger for space (typically top notch agricultural land) and energy.
Her last comment suggests an ambiguous legacy:
Despite the "importance" of the bike, it's "impractical". And why is that? Because you "need [your] car". And that's because for the last 30 years Hazel has been the calm, competent eye at the center of a storm of development with the automobile at its foundation. Would only that, during her three decades in office, the good mayor had thought the bicycle (and walkable communities), practical enough to actually build toward rather than just indulge in symbolic gestures. Now that would truly have been setting an example.
Dee Dubya (not verified)
Hazel McHurricane is my Hero
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 09:52Hazel McHurricane is my hero. She's been fessing up for years now about her negative role in misleading Mississauga head first into the best/worst example of car-dependent urban sprawl in the country.
Her words about choosing cycling because she can't get to transit are part of the honest messaging she's been putting out there since she helped found the concept of "smart growth" in the GTA.
I am not surprised to see her zipping around on two wheels at her age. Hazel's a very balanced lady. Riding to work will help her reduce the stress related to the closer look she'll now get at all the continuing "dumb growth" along the way.
hamish (not verified)
yes, it's all relative
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 00:08Yup you're right Luke, the true example would have been to eschew the devilopment and left the fields green. But relatively speaking, having a near-nonagerian female Mayor riding a bike in a suburban "city", it's pretty good.
Svend
Lead the way, Hazel!
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 10:06I think most people in society have misgivings on how we've changed cities, there is a fairly new attitude that cycling can be part of the solution.
I appreciate Hazel being honest with her thoughts and showing that it isn't too late to fix problems.
Donald GO-by-Bi...
Too far from transit? Get to it by bike.
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 10:51Yes, I've witnessed that new attitude, but not here at home. While cycling on the west coast through Tsawwassan First Nations' reserve last fall, I spotted a unique site (to my eyes). Two children rode their bikes to the city bus stop, and had left them there in the rain for their use when they returned.
On a given (sunny) day in the GTA, there's only 5 to 15 bikes at every GO Station across the whole region. I look forward to the day that Southern Ontarians follow those children's example and I see 100s of bikes at the GO Station, and (at least) 2 parked at every Mississauga Transit bus shelter.
vic
Biking to the bus
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 12:16I often see bikes parked at TTC stops on the Mississauga/Toronto border, on Bloor St. and Burnhamthorpe Rd. Looks like people are biking from eastern Mississauga to the TTC stops, to avoid having to pay double bus fares.
I've heard that some of the TTC stops around Steeles Ave. have quite a few bikes parked around them as well (I saw this myself at Jane and Steeles).
veronica (not verified)
Biking to bus stops
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 14:07I had to take VIVA a few times to Newmarket last summer. I was pleasantly suprised to see at least one bike, sometimes more, at almost all of the VIVA stops. Looked like people were cycling to the bus stops. Way to go York Regioners!
chephy (not verified)
Hazel riding a bike? Gasp!
Fri, 09/12/2008 - 15:31Hazel riding a bike? Gasp! Did she forget that roads are for cars and trucks! I'll be driving in Mississauga on the car-free day and you better not get in my way, you silly cyclist!
She'll probably ride on the sidewalk though...
warren (not verified)
Hazel rocks.
Mon, 09/15/2008 - 11:47I wish every city had a mayor as cool, and apparently indestructable, as Mayor Hazel.
Previous unfriendly remarks towards cyclists notwithstanding, I think she's great.
W