Toronto’s world-renowned more- ?than-century-old human-powered delivery industry is ailing.[rssbreak]
Battered further by the horrific demise of much-missed bike messenger Darcy Allan Sheppard, it seems now to have reached a new ebb in its storied history.
A dozen years after Canada began working in earnest on a Sustainable Transportation Strategy, the busiest streets of the nation’s most congested urban centre are still clogged with more and more huge, motorized (often illegally parked) courier and postal cube vans when the number of active transportation workers continues to dwindle.
The reasons as to why won’t soon be publicly addressed.
A complaint I filed over a year ago with the Health and Safety branch of the Ministry of Labour – that our streets are an unnecessarily unsafe workplace for occupational cyclists – has been dismissed.
During our city’s green epiphany, didn’t we all agree that we had to reduce our use of fossil fuels?
And didn’t the more responsible transportation of both people and their goods (i.e., bikes) offer a necessary yet reasonable opportunity for conservation?
There’s no better way than human-powered to move documents and small-load freight in our most congested neighbourhoods, eh?
Police and parking enforcement officers, EMS workers and other city employees use bikes.
But I’ve been told to take my case to the city’s transportation department. I’ve appealed.
I asked the ministry to consider a number of hazardous realities out there, including air quality, the absence or poor design of bike lanes and the lack of enforcement of motor vehicle speed limits. But the provincial investigator who handled my case said they do not add up to workplace hazards.
The world acknowledges the myriad, very real benefits of human-powered transportation. Rev Canada acknowledged food as fuel for couriers and made it tax-deductible years ago. This city’s 13th consecutive official observance of International Messenger Appreciation Day took place Friday, October 9.
Still, gaps in existing labour law see those who work on bikes slip through the safety net afforded most Ontario workers.
The doubly recession-pressed members of Toronto’s foot/bike/transit delivery fleet are not equally protected by the Ministry of Labour. Maybe the Environment Ministry will listen. Stay tuned.3
Wayne Scott is an active transportation advocate, and former long-time bike courier and city Cycling Ambassador. A previous appeal he filed against Revenue Canada won bike couriers the right to claim food as fuel.
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