I think you slipped up on the name you mentioned in your last post….

I’ve been sitting here for ten minutes now with my hands frozen above the keys and eyes wet and blurry. I don’t know what to say, but I want to say something … something about how many people have told me they cried when they read this post, or about how dear and good a person Andrew Ryan seems to have been … nothing comes out right or clear or appropriate. i’m just so sorry. i’m so sorry.

thank you for taking the time to write this here. please know that our thoughts are with you.

risa

your participation in this assembly of exchanges – both despite and because of your grief and your anger – has a resonance that i cannot describe. it would be trivial to even attempt such a thing.

i can tell you that i live just up the street from you and your family and that my partner and i have been thinking about ryan’s death. it has a kind of fall-out effect that relates most immediately to your family and the local community; yet, it goes further into the larger political contexts of the city and the imagined place we want Toronto to become. i was scared that i had pushed discussion too far in a sense, indulging and extracting an argument from an event and a loss that has already caused much pain and trauma.

i think, though, that ryan’s death was something that demanded a loud and continued response. having attempted to reconcile the situation myself, i felt that anything short of speaking out would have been irresponsible and negligent, at least on my own part. my petty sense of self was affected and had to have a say. i sought out this venue because it is a kind of commons that i visit frequently and use. i needed some added space to express what it was that i wanted to communicate. i apologize for any inaccuracies; it was not my intent to embellish. i hope you understand.

i tell you that i am saddened and deeply moved by your comments and that they have caused me further pause for thought.

again, my deepest sympathy to you and your family.

sincerely,
neil balan

i.) Share the road, dough-boy
Thanks to NOW for printing Andrew Matheson’s incredible letter (NOW, November 17-23). Most publications would shy away from giving voice to such a callous, wrong-headed screed, but this venom only helps to reinforce what Toronto’s cycling community has been painfully aware of for years – that doughy, irresponsible drivers have absolutely no concern for the health and well-being of their fellow citizens. If anyone should get in the way of their hulking, smog spewing conveyances, they think it’s their right to eliminate the vulnerable impediment. One would hope the sadly misinformed individual who penned this arrogantly dangerous idiocy might be contacted by Toronto police services and edified as to the actual nature of this city’s shared transportation realm as outlined in Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
Wayne Scott
Toronto

ii.) Crackpot car-head
Andrew Matheson is certainly not the first condescending car-head to try to blame a dead cyclist by explaining that our roads were “made for… the automobile.” What’s missing from this little history lesson is the fact that Ontario’s dirt roads were first improved in response to lobbying by cyclists. Shortly thereafter, motorists began bullying everyone else off the road and continue to do so today, maiming hundreds every year.
David Tomlinson
Toronto

iii.) Drivers should be nervous
Instead of arrogantly demanding that cyclists give up their legally enshrined right to use the street, automobile proponent Andrew Matheson should be nervous about his own continuing access. Many cities around the world, addressing the congestion, smog and dangers created by automotive traffic, have already imposed restrictions or outright bans on car use in downtown zones while promoting bicycles use, and many more cities are considering doing the same. Dingaling yourself, Mr. Matheson!
Robert G. Cooke, MD
Toronto

know also that, as i rode the slow but reliable queen streetcar home yesterday, some asshole in a hummer, notoriously passing the streetcar in the curbside lane doing close to 70km/h, whizzed by a guy on a bike and nearly rubbed him out. this happened no further than 400 metres from the site of ryan carriere’s fatal encounter. what’s more is that the driver of the hummer had the audacity to flip the biker the bird. foul. i was incensed and managed to get into a yelling match out of the streetcar window with the driver once we caught up to him at the street light. it was an awkward moment…what does one do?

n

i appreciate your remarks. know that i was tempted initially to end my response with my phone number and a direct challenge; however, my loving partner, always attuned, instead challenged me to articulate myself in a way that didn’t reiterate any kind of lame posturing. i guess it’s a matter of attempting to generate my own kind of consciousness and get it out there. shit: respecting people who are not in cars – seems like such a simple thing.

again, thanks.

n