iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Oh The Urbanity!

Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 14h

These battery fires are becoming one of the first things people associate with e-bikes. And there’s little awareness that they’re almost entirely due to cheap, uncertified, off-brand batteries and bikes. Not regular companies with certified batteries.

youtu.be

Toronto hit with 108th lithium battery e-bike fire of year, fire chief says

YouTube video by CTV News

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 10h

I think a lot wouldn’t even recognize the term? It would take some time and context for me to figure out what the “Greek system” means. But yeah, I’d just call them fraternities and sororities and they’re not that big here.

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Chicagoans Who Bike @chiwho.bike · 06/10/2026

“This is our Urban Arrow and we’ve had this since we moved to Chicago. I use it to get my kids around, and sometimes even the two kids and my mom in here. So it's our two wheels, but, like an SUV on two wheels.” 🧵

A smiling woman stands on a city street next to a white cargo e-bike. She has dark long hair with a flower clip, glasses, and is wearing a short-sleeved blue patterned jacket with orange trim over a peach top, a long floral-patterned skirt, and white sneakers. Her bike is a white Urban Arrow front-loading cargo bike with a large black front box, yellow panniers on the rear rack, a helmet hanging from the handlebars.

A closer shot of the same woman, with people sitting at picnic tables in the street behind her.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 12h

Who said a Cybertruck can’t haul big tonnage?

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 14h

youtu.be

Toronto hit with 108th lithium battery e-bike fire of year, fire chief says

YouTube video by CTV News

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 17h

You know the fact-checking is legitimate when it’s text turned into an image for no particular reason and it includes no sources.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 17h

The first winter I really took winter cycling seriously, I set myself a goal of biking every single day. It was almost totally doable, with only 5 to 7 days being seriously difficult. *Except* that painted bike lanes fare much worse in winter than protected (easily plowed) ones.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 19h

One thing about Copenhagen is that there's tons of dense housing but you *never* find it fronting a busy road with cars racing past, which describes about 90% of the apartments in the US. They manage to make it feel tucked away, private, cozy. (These are all from Sluseholmen, my dream neighborhood.)

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Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 20h

Renmac's dumbass policy guy was like "wait for the QC election to see if Carney's party makes gain for the trade war". Bro not how it works

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 20h

What frustrates me about our car culture is that it’s not humble or self-aware at all. It’s not “I need this tool for a task but I recognize the danger it poses to others”. It’s “oh you think speed limits should be enforced? fuck you”.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Bike lanes are for more than just cyclists!

Mobility scooter in a bike lane in Montreal

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Kevin Wilson @kwilsonhfx.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Canadians sometimes just decide your political party can stop now.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 21h

Everybody thinks their community has a “unique character”, when in reality that’s just usually another way to say “I have a general dislike of change”.

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Patrick Déry @patrickdery.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Ce n'est pas normal qu'on soit en train de contempler la possibilité d'un gouvernement « majoritaire » avec 30 % du vote. Ce n'est pas normal qu'à peu près tous les commentateurs font comme si c'était normal. C'est anormal, peu importe le parti. Une « majorité », ce n'est pas 3 personnes sur 10.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Parti québécois 28% of vote = 46% of seats Liberals 24% = 31% of seats Conservatives 21% = 15% CAQ 13% = 0% Québec solidaire 12% = 7%

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I wonder if the CAQ regrets not fixing the electoral system?

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

If the PQ wins tonight, hopefully they’ll follow through on their promise to enact electoral reform. Unlike the CAQ in Quebec before and Justin Trudeau federally, who both abandoned their promises.

youtu.be

Time To Stop Voting Like Americans

YouTube video by Paige Saunders

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Bike lanes are for more than just cyclists!

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Sorry Buddy @3cityyimby.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Watching people hand it to Rees-Mogg. He and I would probably agree on a great deal, but I'm not going to respect a man with six kids who's never changed a diaper.

independent.co.uk

Jacob Rees-Mogg, father of six, declares he has never changed a nappy

Backbencher admits he is 'not a modern man'

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It's Jamie @sjamieit.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

My mother-in-law, who hadn't been on a bicycle since the 1980s, visited us last year and we biked to toddler swimming class together. She's now biking 40 minutes to work everyday in Montreal because she has a separated bike lane the whole way there.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This isn’t my type of “cycling” at all — blasting through red lights, almost hitting pedestrians. Makes me cringe. But it’s an interesting look at Montreal in 2004, before almost all of the modern bike infrastructure.

youtube.com

MONTREAL ALLEYCAT 2004

YouTube video by Lucas Brunelle

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Reposted by Oh The Urbanity!

John Lansing @pipedreaming.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The left, whether it’s in Spain, Canada, the UK or elsewhere, needs a set of policies to increase housing supply with measurable results if it wants to fend off the far-right and stop the erosion of liberal democracy.

nytimes.com

Live Updates: Spain Calls Early Election After Housing Crisis Roils Government

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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Duverger’s Law taking some big Ls here

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Went to Cyclovia, an active-mobility-oriented street festival in the Montreal suburb of Laval today. They had music, activities for kids, mechanic workshops, demonstrations involving transit, bike shops, etc.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Man, first-past-the-post is crazy. When 30% of the vote can plausibly get you a majority government but 15% can plausibly get you zero (0) seats.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My view of rent control is that it doesn’t solve the underlying problem (housing supply shortage). But also, to the extent that it’s net negative, it’s pretty far down the list of the main causes of the housing crisis. So, I don’t spend much time advocating for or against it. Am I wrong?

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I made my post after an hour drive. It absolutely would have been harder if I wasn’t in the back seat giving food, toys, books. There’s no other context where I’m with my 21-month old for an hour but unable to see/interact. Not in a stroller, bus, bike, train, or plane. That’s a downside of cars.

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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Left-NIMBY vacancy trutherism is so funny because their argument implicitly accepts the logic that greater supply of housing lowers prices but then completely refuses to take it to its logical endpoint that we should build more housing.

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Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A lot of Americans think we're just having an unnecessary trade dispute with a president occasionally making unfunny jokes, while the reality is there are elements in the US conservative movement actively trying to tear our country apart. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

theglobeandmail.com

The elephant in the room

Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province

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Reposted by Oh The Urbanity!

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 02/10/2026

Montreal’s automated metro REM is considerably surpassing ridership expectations this fall, with average daily ridership settling in at 130,000, even before the opening of the airport branch, expected next year.

lapresse.ca

Réseau express métropolitain | L’achalandage du REM bondit

Loin d’être en retard, l’achalandage quotidien du Réseau express métropolitain (REM) a bondi de plus de 60 % durant l’été, au point où il est dorénavant bien au-delà de ses cibles, selon La Caisse, qu...

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

We have both snow plows and air conditioning.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Car share worked well to get out of the city but people don’t talk about how difficult cars are with babies. Say it’s just you, the driver. The baby is back seat facing away. You can barely see or interact with them, can’t offer food or toys or fix any issues. Sleeping? Crying?

Back seat of car with car seat facing away

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Deux jours avant l’élection. J’ai honnêtement aucune idée pour qui je vais voter. Mes priorités: Plus de logements/densité dans les villes. Des services publics bien financés. Pro-TGV. Réforme électorale. Plus anti-Trump que anti-Ottawa. Quel parti correspond mieux?

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Justin McElroy 🇨🇦 @jmcelroy.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Elections have a way of clarifying who matters to political parties (car owners) and whose priorities can wait for another day (transit advocates). My dispatch from Day 1 on David Eby’s four day mid-election road trip. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

cbc.ca

ANALYSIS | Eby puts needs of car owners ahead of transit advocates in ruling out Metro Vancouver vehicle levy | CBC News

For the last 18 months, a vehicle levy has been talked about by TransLink as a potential way to create a more sustainable funding model, as revenue from fuel taxes continues to decline. But all that w...

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Scott @sdlb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Most of those are supply manged, which is a literal government sponsored and protected cartel designed to raise prices. Artificially increasing the price of milk and eggs then layering price controls on top because the price is too high is completely incoherent

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

“There’s no point in banning AirBnB until we can guarantee that any new housing will be deeply affordable. More market-rate rentals do *nothing* to solve affordability!” (If you take left-NIMBY economics seriously.)

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Jeremy Glover @jgrantglover.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Officially an electric cargo bike family! I put 13 miles on it today just making my usual rounds. Pretty pumped to be out of the car.

Two kids wearing helmets sitting on the back of a long-tail electric cargo bike. Their faces are obscured by smiling emojis.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Vancouver’s West End — the densest neighbourhood in the city and arguably the country — was named the “best neighbourhood in Canada” by the Canadian Institute of Planners in 2015. Lots of density letting people live in a great location next to the beach, jobs, walking, cycling, transit.

straight.com

Vancouver's West End named best neighbourhood in Canada | Georgia Straight Vancouver’s source for arts, culture, and events

Nov 6, 2015 - Guess which neighbourhood has won the title of being the best in Canada?

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Steve Lafleur @stevelafleur.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

What the "don't build towers" people are actually saying is "move to Alberta," even if they don't know it.

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Will Norman @willnorman.co.uk · 02/10/2026

Cargo bike use in London is booming - up 126% since 2022. This week I joined 50 businesses - from Royal Mail to delivery firms, waste companies & tradespeople - to celebrate & raise awareness of this clean, green & economical alternative to diesel vans. #CargoBikeCruiseLDN

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Does this exist in Canada? I have never seen or heard of it. Even when I lived in not especially walkable suburbs and small towns, residential streets were generally fine to trick-or-treat.

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Kevin Wilson @kwilsonhfx.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When your snap election call totally wasn't a mistake.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Coming back from Lyon earlier this summer, the streets in Montreal felt very wide and the buildings very short. And Lyon has half the metro area population.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Limiting housing construction in walkable central neighbourhoods means pushing more people out to live in car-oriented suburbs.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I appreciate that the Ontario Greens were the only opposition party in the last election to put reversing Doug Ford’s bike lane meddling in their platform. The Liberals and NDP did not.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

We have five parties that will likely win seats here (three that can plausibly govern) and none of them stand out as a match for my views and priorities.

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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 01/10/2026

I spent the summer trying to understand what makes Mark Carney's government tick. What I found is a C-Suite obsessed with efficiency — which is trying to ignore what's deeply broken. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

thestar.com

Justin Ling: Who does Mark Carney really listen to? I asked the insiders

It’s become clear that the prime minister would much rather circumvent problems than fix them.

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Oh The Urbanity! @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I’m not a super big Critical Mass person (busy, baby, etc.) but I wish I could be there to show support for Toronto cyclists.

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