Cop in bike lane: Sun scoop

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/11/25/11915471-sun.html

Councillor Pam McConnell, vice-chairman of the police services board:

Officers, she said, are held to a higher standard than other motorists and must follow the rules like everyone else.

"There are no laws that are for the average citizen that are not for the officers. It is quite the opposite," she said yesterday. "The city is very much growing up in terms of its understanding of different modes of transportation.

"I think that it is a wake-up call for all of our division commanders to be talking to their officers about this (bike lane) priority of the board ... and the importance of not only enforcing the law, but adhering to the law and modelling the law."
...

Area residents and shop owners say it's common to see police parked in the Annette bike lane. A website, toronto.mybikelane.com, even shows photos of two other cruisers -- one a supervisor's vehicle -- blocking the lane at different times in August and last week.

Two bike-friendly councillors feel it walks a fine line:

"I think police merit special consideration," said Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who cycles to City Hall from Scarborough most days. "Yes, he (the officer) shouldn't have done that, and if it was a member of the public, I'd say yes, that member of the public should get a ticket, but I would make an exception for the police."

Councillor Adrian Heaps, who heads up the city's cycling advisory committee, said the issue of cops blocking bike lanes for personal use is, "a fine line."

"People would be the first to complain that the police didn't answer a call because they're walking down the street to their car," he said.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/11/25/11915466-sun.html

And the other story claims that business is hurt by the bike lanes on Annette. Just like any good statistician this business owner makes a quick calculation in his head and attributes the entire loss to the most visible change. Not only do they end up confusing cause and correlation they also ignore any other possible correlation, say, between their business and a global recession!

The inconvenience has cut Grillway business 10%, Karathanasis estimated.

"It's good for the environment, but they should have done a lot more study," he said. "We're treated like second-class citizens. We are trying to bring people in ... if we have no place to stop, they'll go somewhere else."

"Pretty soon they're going to ask us for a scooter lane, then a skateboard lane," construction worker Chris Makris, 33, said. "If a cop was forced to park legally somewhere, he might be three to four blocks away and have to run back to his car if he has an emergency."

But Jonathan Van Kenzie said police leaving cruisers in bicycle paths "sends a mixed message," since they issue $60 tickets to other motorists who break the bylaw. Cyclists blocked by vehicles "have to swerve into traffic and that's where you can have a fatality."