How-Sen Chong

How-Sen Chong

@how-sen.com

Toronto urban environmentalist. 20+ years in climate activism. Fancy degrees from McGill and Yale. Posts my own. Driver against car dominance. Renewables x batteries maxxer. https://how-sen.com/link

6.9K followers2K following1.3K posts

Bike Lanes Save Moms Bike Lanes Save Dads Bike Lanes Save Kids Bike Lanes Save Seniors Bike Lanes Save Commuters Bike Lanes Save Delivery Workers Bike Lanes Save Fuel Bike Lanes Save Emissions Bike Lanes Save Health Bike Lanes Save Lives

Thanks @spacing.bsky.social for publishing my op-ed: "The radio silence on our city’s biggest environmental priorities from half the major candidates for mayor is not normal, and should be ringing alarm bells. Whoever is elected will be leading our city through countless extreme weather events"

Spacing@spacing.bsky.social

spacing.ca/toronto/2026... While councillor candidates tout their green credentials, environmental issues have been overlooked in the mayoral race, specifically by Brad Bradford ,who has ignored all calls to answer TEA's survey about the climate crisis. #TOpoli

Don’t ever let them make you believe that you’re fighting alone.

Tom Flood@tomflood.bsky.social

urban street projections across the globe in Wellington, NZ including solidarity with Toronto. 🔥🔥 @axleryde.bsky.social

For the first… half or so… of my life as an environmentalist, I would often find myself the only person of colour in the room. But one man showed me that it was possible, and that was David Suzuki, who I had the surreal and personally emotional opportunity to share a stage with last night.

Now, because of the emotional work of thousands of people, including so many white and white-passing leaders, I seldom find myself as the only non-white person in a room. That means more voices, more different lived experiences are involved in the conversation. And we are stronger for it.

The UK’s $20 billion warm homes plan, now under threat, is designed to help millions save money and create tens of thousands of new jobs. The other plan would enrich a handful of corporations and hire 97% fewer people. We need to stop helping the obscenely rich continue to get more obscenely rich.

I was observing the protest last night. And in addition to the stereotypical Lycra-cyclists, there were senior citizens, students, workers of all ages. People also brought their families and children. One kid was giving out cookies.’

People who’ve never biked before might not understand this. Frankly, I barely do But I think the reason behind the passion here is this: Bike Lanes Save Lives is not a just a slogan. It’s an actual, documented fact. So eliminating these bike lanes is literally eliminating peoples’ safety.

Imagine, for example, the government were to come in and say ‘we are banning all speed limits on all streets’. While this would make some drivers happy, those would be the drivers least concerned about other road users.

At the press conference in Etobicoke about Doug Ford’s ripping out of bike lanes between Royal York and Islington. I went to school around the corner from here.

“But that’s Europe! They didn’t have used to have cars!” It’s important to remember that North American city centres like Toronto ALSO predate the rise of the automobile by at least half a century.

Melissa & Chris Bruntlett@modacitylife.com

In 2016, Leuven made a bold decision: instead of trying to accommodate ever-increasing car traffic, it would change the rules of the road entirely. A decade later, the Dutch-inspired traffic circulation plan has drastically improved the city’s accessibility, liveability and quality of public space.🧵

Doug Ford’s government will start ripping out the bike lanes between Royal York and Islington on Tuesday. As an Etobian, I’ve driven and biked in that area a LOT. This move will make the area more dangerous, make traffic worse, and reduce foot traffic small businesses rely on.

Toronto Environmental Alliance@toenviro.bsky.social

MEDIA: TEA strongly opposes the Province's short-sighted plans to begin ripping out the Bloor bike lane: https://loom.ly/CWkKK6s "Ripping it out will send cyclists either back into cars, or to the hospital - and will increase pollution” -@howsenchong.bsky.social

Toronto: Advance polls for the municipal election are now open until Sunday, October 11. During elections it’s common for community organizations to survey candidates. I think it’s important to highlight how the mayoral candidates responded (before Chris Alexander dropped out). Here are three:

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Concerningly, for all three of these community organizations dedicated to getting Torontonians moving more efficiently, affordably, and sustainably, only one of the (then three) key mayoral candidates submitted a response to their questions. I really hope that changes.

Toronto: Advance polls for the municipal election are now open until Sunday, October 11. During elections it’s common for community organizations to survey candidates. I think it’s important to highlight how the mayoral candidates responded (before Chris Alexander dropped out). Here are three:

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TTCriders (@ttcriders.bsky.social) also sent out a survey to what was then the three main candidates for mayor. Here are the results:

TTCriders@ttcriders.bsky.social

We've released the results of our candidate transit policy survey! We asked all mayoral & city council candidates about their commitments to improving transit. Of the three leading mayoral candidates, only Olivia Chow completed our survey; Chris Alexander made a platform commitment to hike fares.

Toronto: Advance polls for the municipal election are now open until Sunday, October 11. During elections it’s common for community organizations to survey candidates. I think it’s important to highlight how the mayoral candidates responded (before Chris Alexander dropped out). Here are three:

Missed the 20th Nuit Blanche in Toronto this year. Taking a little break in Montreal instead I did my undergrad here a few decades ago. Beautiful place that gets a lot of things right.

Listen: I don’t want to minimize the danger of high e-bike speeds. But if the problem here is that stores sell e-bikes that can drive faster than legal limits, then where’s the story about how literally *every car dealership has been doing the same thing for decades*?!?

cbc.caHidden cameras show some stores unlocking speed limits on e-bikes, selling e-scooters that go up to 120 km/h | CBC NewsA new hidden camera investigation by Marketplace shows how some stores are selling e-scooters and e-bikes with top speeds much higher than provincial speed limits and with recommended rider ages young...

There’s a new kind of climate denialism at play. One where those in power no longer deny climate change is happening, but deny what needs to happen in order to step up to the challenge.

Seth Klein@sethdklein.bsky.social

My latest column is out today in @nationalobserver.com.web.brid.gy, in which I explain how the “new climate denialism” is holding back progress in the fight of our lives, and how PM Mark Carney has become its lead practitioner. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/09/25/o...

In Ontario, front windows need to let in 70% of light as windows tinted more than that is a literal night time safety hazard. The fine is $110 … and Doug ford just raised fines for walking on to GO transit without paying (not causing any danger to anyone) to $200 for the first offence.

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@denisagar.bsky.social correctly points out that this format undercuts the role of transit. For example, buses (purple) barely register on Dufferin here. So you wouldn’t know that as many people take the Dufferin bus as there are cars driving on Dufferin. That’s how good transit is.

The reason why this tool undercuts the role of transit is because this is based on City of Toronto traffic counter data going back decades on Toronto’s Open Data portal. It would be great if we could get TTC boarding information superimposed over this, but I have never seen that data set.

Another thing you notice is how well bike lanes are used (bikes are in pink, which is a nice throwback) Look here at Bloor and compare it to Dupont. Or Shaw versus Ossington.

Here are the 11 Canadian think tanks funded by this U.S.-based libertarian network as of 2022, when the network stopped publicizing who they were supporting on their website.

Photo from Reddit of today’s Critical Mass. There are hundreds of cyclists in this photo and only about 40 people in cars. Yet both groups are taking up roughly the same amount of road space.

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A reminder that the average car only has about 1.5 occupants, including the driver. Mathematically, because most cars can fit 5-7 occupants, that means that *the majority of cars only have one person in them* Spend 2 minutes looking at the car traffic on a busy road and you can see it yourself.

One reason so many cyclists can be jammed together in a single space is because unlike cars, bikes don’t need as much space around them when stopped because a bump doesn’t cause thousands in damage. If you look at a line of cars at a stoplight, they all have at least half a car length between them.

Photo from Reddit of today’s Critical Mass. There are hundreds of cyclists in this photo and only about 40 people in cars. Yet both groups are taking up roughly the same amount of road space.

And a reminder that this is what this stretch of road used to look like. With one lane of through-traffic on each side, and one lane of parking. Cars essentially have the same amount of road space, including a parking lane. The main thing that’s changed is that cyclists now have a protected lane.

The people on the sidewalk: a) significantly outnumber the drivers in cars and b) are here to spend time and money in this neighbourhood. The drivers in these mostly empty cars are: a) trying to drive AWAY from this neighbourhood as quickly as possible, and yet b) are given most of the road space

How-Sen Chong reposted

Four countries—the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway—have increased oil and gas production by 40 percent since the 2015 Paris Agreement, while the rest of world has reduced production (archive story) ...

insideclimatenews.org‘Hurtling Toward Climate Chaos’ as COP30 Nears - Inside Climate NewsNegotiators gathering for the global climate talks must acknowledge their failures and seek alternatives to spur action, scientists say.

After the Hugging Face incident where OpenAI’s bots gained admin access to two companies’ systems and tried to cover their tracks, OpenAI has now admitted SIX new concerning behaviours over the past six months, including hiding information and releasing unauthorized files to the internet.

nytimes.comOpenAI Discloses Six New Incidents of ‘Concerning' A.I. BehaviorThe artificial intelligence company also released a framework for reporting when its systems go wrong.

I was in class. There were no smartphones or even wifi, but someone in class had printed an article about a ‘small plane’ hitting the first tower. After class, I walked to the Shatner student building, and EVERYONE was watching the CBC Newsworld feed. I saw the South collapse live, then the North.

I went upstairs to the office of International Relations Students Association. I knew there was a computer there that had a hard wire Ethernet connection. Every news website was down from the traffic.

I went back to my apartment. Turned on the TV. I called everyone I knew on my beige cordless phone. I don’t remember if I went to class for the next day or so.