Photo by functoruser. The dramatic rise in gas prices has the prime minister wannabes speaking out against it. However, as much as they talk, like our mamas taught us, actions count for more than words. And we're willing to gamble that not a single leader has had to pump his or her own gas in recent months.......

So, your buddy just flew in from his exotic, six-month trek throughout Thailand. You're at work when he lands, so you send your older sister to go pick him up (she owes you a favour, as per usual). She drives to the airport, picks him up, and he returns, full of coconut curry and stories of full-moon parties. He doesn't bring back any drugs, or snakeskin shoes, but on the ride back he buys......

Four children aged approximately 8 to 9 years old were taken to hospital yesterday after ingesting or coming into contact with a pool cleaning agent—believed to be muriatic acid—at a Royal Canadian Yacht Club swimming pool yesterday. For those of you unfamiliar with the name "muriatic acid," you will be relieved to find out that it's just another name for plain old hydrochloric acid. Aren't you relieved? The area surrounding the Rogers Centre was......

The McGuinty government is preparing legislation to combat "driver distraction," which will likely mean no more hand-held cell phones, Blackberries, Gameboys, iPods, or other "electronic distractions" while you're at the wheel. So much for the Torontoist mobile Wii tennis tournament. In an increasingly familiar Parliamentary ritual, Stephen Harper dared Stéphane Dion to bring down the government and let the voters decide who they like, this time on the issue of the Liberals' proposed carbon......

Toronto has experienced some erratic and spectacular weather recently, so pair a thunderstorm with our often rotten, hollow tree canopy and carnage often ensues. This particular space became double parked around six this evening near Shaw and Harrison Streets, and though this type of destruction is not uncommon, things might have been worse. Now, would the owner of a black Volkswagen hatchback please report to the sidewalk? We have some bad news. Photo by......

Poor Acura. In a Sunday Star article, "The Rise and Fall of the SUV," writer David Olive described how the public has fallen out of love with sports utility vehicles, naming fuel costs, environmental concerns, and market saturation as the chief reasons. Olive concludes that the cars are on their way out, and will stay only as "utilitarian" vehicles, "reverting to the original role as truly rugged beasts that are a prerequisite for researchers,......

Ontario will spend more than $2 billion this year to improve provincial roads and highways, widening the QEW and 401 and repairing over 450 kilometres of highway, as well as building and repairing over 100 bridges. In related transit news, the government is spending $5 million on a commission that will study exactly how much cooler cars are than nerdy bicycles, and how many more chicks a guy driving a car gets as opposed......

Photo by Lex in the City. With Bike Month on the horizon and a newly launched advocacy group, cycling in Toronto is undergoing a renaissance (as Val Dodge put it earlier this week). The attention is well-deserved: cycling is one of the most healthy and environmentally conscious methods of commuting. The joys are eloquently captured by Ryerson prof Bill Reynolds in the most recent issue of The Walrus. By listing the hazards of urban......

Tibet supporters demonstrated outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto yesterday, marching with the Tibetan Freedom Torch, which is supposed to be the symbolic opposite to the Olympic torch. Which doesn't make sense, because how can a torch be the opposite of another torch? Shouldn't it have been a large bowl of water instead? The Victoria Day weekend produced record fatalities, with eight dead as of Sunday night. The OPP stated that they were not......

In one of the more surreal moments from Streets are for People’s Tuesday visit to Queen’s Park, Rosario Marchese, the NDP MPP for Trinity-Spadina, donned Captain Planet–style superhero digs, made with a few go-get-’em words about public transit, and took flight into the Legislative Assembly’s inner chamber to save the known universe. Except he didn’t, but the cape is fact. Sort of.......

It is, right now, just after midnight. It is very, very, very cold outside. And Ryerson's Engineering Student Society is currently in the thirteenth hour of shoving a Volkswagen Beetle around their quad, with more than ten very, very cold hours left to go. Why would anyone sacrifice their warmth in -15° weather? This time around, the same zany kids who dye their bodies purple for fun (and engineering pride) are doing some crazy......

Photo by Thomas Hawk. Although we know that every resident of Toronto is a huge fan of the "betterer way," and that not a single one of you has a complaint about the TTC's long wait times, we recognize that it is sometimes necessary to invest in your own personal motorized vehicle. Aside from the costs of car payments, gas, insurance, winter tires, summer tires, oil changes, floor mats and chrome spinners (slammin'!), eventually......

Imagine what the Caddy would think of this month's snowfall. The car wouldn't bother waiting for a driver to take in the greyhounds before the next storm strikes. Cars were sold at the northwest corner of Bay and Grenville for over 80 years, starting in 1925 with a dealership owned by General Motors of Canada president Sam McLaughlin. Addison took over in 1955 and remained until the lot closed last March. The heritage-designated building......

Good news, everyone! If you got a traffic ticket recently, and you planned to fight it in court, you can go ahead and rip it up right now. Yep, tear it right up, and throw it in the garbage. Actually, you should probably check the date you're supposed to appear in court first. If it happens to be February 18, 2008, you're in luck. If it's not on February 18, well, you still have......

In the battle of who owns the roads, cyclists and motorists are frequently at each others' throats. Over the last few years we've seen a heated altercation in Kensington Market and another that resulted in a motorist being stabbed with a screwdriver. It seems that the threat of a streetside melee is always looming. At Yonge and Bloor on Monday afternoon, a motorist attempted to make an illegal right turn and nearly knocked a......

Good newspaper headlines are concise, descriptive, clear, and––occasionally, just occasionally––nothing short of genius. And then there's "Man who stole car with baby faces more charges." Originally published yesterday on The Star's website without a clarifying subheadline, the wonderfully ambiguous title evokes at least three possible scenarios when left by itself: 1. The man and baby stole the car together. As infants are both prone to fits of uncontrollable rage, and are technically able to buy......

The Auditor General's report notes that drivers who graduate from Ontario's volunteer driver's education program have a much higher accident rate than motorists who don't. Stay out of school, kids! Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said his government will restart the Chalk River nuclear power plant, in spite of a warning from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission that such a move poses an accident risk until needed safety equipment is installed. To minimize the......

Road rage in the city is nothing new. Torontoist covered incidents of road rage violence between motorists and cyclists in 2006 and 2007, and the Sun reported on Monday that a cab driver was shot at in a road rage incident. Most coverage focuses on road rage and adults, but new research from Ontario suggests that adolescents are more likely to be victims of road rage. In a study recently published in the Journal......

The status quo for cell phone-using motorists in Toronto won’t be changing in the near future. Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty has decided not to follow Quebec’s lead in banning the use of cellular phones while driving. This despite warnings that driving-and-dialing is a dangerous distraction. Whether you’re walking, biking, driving, or taking the TTC, be warned, Toronto. There’s a cell phone driver out there with your number! Illustration by Kevin McBride.......

Toronto cyclists and motorists have always shared a contentious co-existence. Sure, both sides often behave poorly toward each other, but there is one very important difference: cyclists aren't surrounded by airbags and crumple zones. Though much of the conflict stems from aggressive driving, many drivers simply aren't used to sharing the road with bikes, nor are they necessarily entirely aware of the rights of the cyclist. The new Ministry of Transportation Driver's Handbook has......

It was inevitable: the movement to rescue the truck slammed into the side of the CityTV building (and yes, there is a movement) now that their headquarters are being relocated to John Street has a Facebook group. The truck is slated to come down soon, probably today, and the group is gaining momentum—they almost doubled their numbers (literally) overnight. While the Sam's sign is one thing—a cultural icon that meant so much to so......

Remember Jean Chrétien? We haven't heard much about the former prime minister in some time (dude's been off the map ever since Paul Martin forced him off it). Well, Mizalaina of the Toronto LiveJournal community spotted Chrétien earlier today in downtown Toronto, and has one hell of a story to go along with it: So an hour ago I'm walking north along York St. I hear a crash ahead of me and see a......

So I had to go buy some lettuce today. A Price Chopper is down the road from where I live, at Dundas West & Runnymede (and its prices! They're chopped!). On my way out, though, with my $1.50 worth of lettuce, I saw it: one of the most disgusting and horrifying things I've ever seen. There are three things wrong with the photo at left, snapped (unfortunately) with my cellphone camera. There are no license......