CBC photo of taxi in broadside collision
Two women are in hospital with life threatening injuries after a taxi was broadsided by a truck outside Western Hospital on Bathurst Street. Fire personnel sawed off a door to free the passengers. The driver of the truck said the taxi “suddenly pulled out of the roundabout” at the hospital and the two vehicles crashed. It was subsequently said by police the taxi was making a U-turn.
Writer Terence Corcoran unwinds an interesting vision of driverless cars where the personal ownership of cars will be illegal. You will be required to rely on a government-owned driverless vehicle to take you more or less where you (or the government) want you to go.
The Toronto Star News Service has published a story saying exotic dishes served at a downtown hotel dining room were misrepresented. The story makes it clear that the food was okay to eat it’s just that the “Wild Canadian salmon”, “Organic” granola, “homemade” salad dressing and grilled “Wagyu skirt steak.” weren’t really those things. It is a cautionary story not only about silly puffery in describing food but the marketing strategy in supermarkets to make buyers think food is worth more because it is said to be organic Metro News
That crazy construction corner Bayview Ave. and Eglinton Ave. saw a pedestrian struck in a mid-afternoon accident Friday. The report from Toronto Police Operations (TPS Ops) says she was elderly and sustained a leg injury. The conditions at this corner may be unavoidable but they are exceedingly tricky for pedestrians. Here is a current picture of the mess taken by Bob Arsenault.
The MP for Don Valley West Rob Oliphant will hold an event related to the settlement of Syrian refugees. It is a town hall meeting on Friday, January 22 at Lawrence Park Community Church, 2180 Bayview Ave. It will begin at 7 p.m.
ST CUTHBERT’S CHURCH
St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church will hold a Refugee Sponsorship Information Fair on Saturday, February 6, 2016. It will open at 10 a.m. at 1399 Bayview Ave. Lorna Krawchuk notes the church has made an application for sponsorship and is looking for people willing to give a hand. Incorrect information was given earlier. We apologize for the mistake.
Leaside Jr. Wildcats will play host to the Southwest Wildcats Saturday night at Leaside Gardens. The game begins at 7.40. Southwest is occupying the cellar in the 20-team Provincial Women’s Hockey League as its takes to the ice tomorrow. Sunday afternoon, twelfth place Bluewater Hawks from over Strathroy way will face the Leaside women. Puck drops at 3.40.
CBC has figured out some details on the case of vodka bottles filled not with vodka but water. Security video has revealed the same person returning several bottles that had been drained and refilled with water. There is also a plastic bottle angle. The stories don’t go into how such containers might be easier to open and then close in such a way that it is not obvious but now the LCBO says no plastic bottles will be accepted for return. Smirnoff and other makers sell a 750-milliliter lightweight “traveler” size. The clear PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles feature a unique “keystone” design on the necks and what Smirnoff calls an aesthetic appeal that enhances the rigidity and performance of the container. There is comment online about how bottles can be resealed to keep liquor by using a capsule shrink wrap. The advice says they are quite easy to apply and require heating a pan of water in which to dip the bottle.
Walmart will close 269 stores most of them in the U.S. with a large number in Brazil but none in Canada. The stores being closed are a small part of Walmart’s 11,000 stores. Nearly all of the stores to be closed in the U.S. are within 16 kilometres of another Walmart. Many are the Walmart Express locations launched in 2011. The closings begin in February.
And just because you think you’ll never ride it, you still have to pay. Let’s not be un-civic. We know you thought buses would be better but it’s too late now. How much have you got on you? CP24
Toronto Zoo’s two-month-old baby girl cub is to love and nothing but. She still has a bit of trouble walking. But she will learn and just a reminder that such cuddly creatures grow up to be quite formidable. Courtesy CBC
Councillor Jon Burnside has gone to bat for pedestrians using the peculiar traffic signal system at Bayview Ave. and Manor Rd/Fleming Cres. As described by a post in the South Bayview Bulldog in September the green Walk signals here operate on what is called a semi-actuated mode of control. Translation, you don’t get a green Walk signal to cross Bayview unless you push the so-called “Beg Button” strapped to a utility pole nearby. If pedestrians push the Beg Button, the Walk light will come on and they can cross more or less with confidence. It is complicated, like a lot of modern life, especially when the engineers get finished with their long-form explanations.
Hardly working lights
The Councillor has been trying to get a longer crossing time on Bayview but this was not possible because the entire street is on a system known as SCOOT, which automatically assesses traffic and changes times to suit. But because of Mr. Burnside’s inquiry Transportation Services has requested a change which will permit the green Walk signal in concert with the green light for vehicles (i.e. all the time). The terms used by the “engineering technologist” (yes really) are confusing but the sense of the reply to the Councillor is clear enough to those of us in this office. It is worth noting that the semi-actuated “hardly working” signals are very common and in fact show up at Bayview and Merton St/McRae Drive. No word on them although this tricky intersection with its off-set side streets might benefit from a change too.
