Ridership is high and there’s plenty of work for drivers, but success has come at a cost to this Ontario town
Photographs by Cole Burston
When Daniel Arrega, 19, heads to work at a mall in Innisfil, he has few options for his commute. Walking along the highway would take nearly three hours. A taxi is faster but expensive.
So he takes the town’s public transit: Uber.
Continue reading...Public accounts committee says plan at mercy of spending review delayed by Brexit
A £2bn project to open a road tunnel beneath the Stonehenge world heritage site in 2026 is being put at risk by uncertainty over how it will be financed, MPs have warned.
Ministers have claimed the scheme is affordable, deliverable and will improve Stonehenge by taking the sight and sound of lorries and cars away from the ancient monument and reducing traffic congestion.
Continue reading...As a politics student, Sonakshi Dogra has given the bold new plan by the Delhi government to let all women ride free on the metro and buses a thorough going-over. “It’s ridiculous. Why favour women this way? What about male students and working men? Women can’t ask for gender equality and then support inequality on public transport,” she said firmly.
Dogra was about to enter Ashram metro station with three male friends, also students at the same university. They spend about 4,000 rupees (£45) each a month on transport.
Continue reading...Motorcyclists with a club comprised of ex-US Marines collided with a pickup truck on a rural highway in New Hampshire on Friday, killing seven and leaving the biker community reeling.
Related: Nine people die in Hawaii plane crash
Continue reading...Tensions between rival moto gangs in the Thai capital escalated after the arrival of ride-hailing apps. Now two men are dead
On Thursday morning on Soi Udomsuk, a market-flanked road in east-central Bangkok, nine police officers on plastic chairs are keeping watch.
The officers, their peaked brown hats neatly lined up on trestle tables, are on the lookout for any signs of trouble between rival motorbike taxi gangs after carnage erupted in this pocket of the city on Saturday when a brutal fight broke out between two groups of drivers.
Continue reading...Lesbian couple assaulted by group of young males blame rise of rightwing populism for growth in hate crime
The two women left needing hospital treatment after they were attacked on a bus in a homophobic assault have blamed a rise in rightwing populism for growing hate crime and called on people to stand up for each other.
Melania Geymonat, 28, and her girlfriend, Chris, 29, defiantly announced they would not be intimidated into hiding their sexuality, days after they said they were attacked by several young men when they refused to kiss upon demand.
Continue reading...€72m makeover will create mile-long stretch of pools, fountains and parks
A garden stretches for a mile, free of cars with one of the world’s most recognisable monuments at its centre. Crossing the river on a tree-lined and lawned bridge, the roar of traffic has been replaced by the sound of water from fountains.
Such is the vision for the Eiffel Tower, which is at the centre of a major makeover project to transform one of Paris’s most visited districts.
Continue reading...Porsches and Lamborghinis spotted doing high speeds on unrestricted part of autobahn
German police have seized 120 sports cars that were taking part in a suspected road race across Europe.
Cars including Porsches, Lamborghinis and Audis were stopped on Thursday on the A20 east of Wismar, in north-east Germany, on a stretch of the autobahn without speed restrictions.
Continue reading...Police drivers would be held to different driving standards to public when in road chases
Police drivers will be held to different standards to the public if they are involved in a car crash while chasing a suspected criminal under changes put forward by the home secretary, Sajid Javid.
Officers are currently held to the same standards as members of the public when involved in a crash during a pursuit and the Home Office argues this overlooks the training they receive.
Continue reading...Authorities say 100-metre-long mass is the result of concrete being poured down drain
People pouring concrete into sewers has led to a “concreteberg” forming in central London that weighs 105 tonnes, as heavy as a blue whale.
The 100-metre-long mass is blocking three Victorian-era sewers in the heart of the capital. Thames Water’s operations manager, Alex Saunders, said it was the largest mass of concrete the company had seen, and could take two months to remove at a cost of at least several hundred thousand pounds.
Continue reading...Almost 1,000 people a year in London are hospitalised with asthma caused by pollution
London is preparing to enforce “world-leading” vehicle pollution restrictions from Monday as the capital attempts to clean up the toxic air blamed for thousands of premature deaths.
The ultra-low emission zone, or Ulez, will launch at one minute past midnight, imposing a £12.50-a-day charge to drive into central London in all but the cleanest cars and vans.
Continue reading...E-bikes now outsell standard bicycles in Netherlands, with quality prized more than price
In what was already a long-running purple patch for the Dutch cycle industry, domestic sales records have been broken in the last 12 months despite spiralling prices, as technological developments push the standard push-bike into the annals of history.
Related: The Guardian view on e-bikes: British cycling needs this boost | Editorial
Continue reading...Licensing law proposals also include more rigorous regime on driver background checks
Taxis and minicab drivers in England and Wales could be forced to install CCTV in their vehicles under government proposals to tighten up licensing laws.
Local authorities might also have to conduct enhanced criminal record and background checks on every driver.
Continue reading...Britain’s favourite monument is stuck in the middle of a bad-tempered row over road traffic. By Charlotte Higgins
Stonehenge, with the possible exception of Big Ben, is Britain’s most recognisable monument. As a symbol of the nation’s antiquity, it is our Parthenon, our pyramids – although, admittedly, less impressive. Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum, recalls that when he took a group of Egyptian archaeologists to see it, they were baffled by our national devotion to the stones, which, compared to the refined surfaces of the pyramids, seemed to them like something hastily thrown up over a weekend.
Unlike those other monuments, though, Stonehenge is more or less a complete mystery. Nobody knows for sure why, or by whom, this vast arrangement of boulders was erected on Wiltshire’s downlands, in the south of England, about 5,000 years ago. Into this void have rushed myriad theories, from the academically sober to the blatantly fantastic. Over the centuries, its construction has been confidently credited to giants, wizards, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans, Romans, Saxons, Danes and aliens. (According to one medieval theory, Merlin had it transported from Ireland to serve as the funeral monument for Britons slaughtered by Hengist, the treacherous Saxon.)
Continue reading...Police tell drivers to take care, as one stranded motorist resorts to eating snow from roof of car
Motorists were stranded for a second night as freezing temperatures brought traffic to a standstill in some areas, and one driver resorted to eating snow off the roof of his car.
Sleet and snow continued during the early hours of Saturday morning, causing treacherous conditions on highways across Kent and Hampshire.
Continue reading...Duke of Edinburgh wishes Emma Fairweather ‘a speedy recovery’ and suggests low sun may have been to blame
A “very contrite” Duke of Edinburgh has personally apologised for his part in a car crash to a woman who was left with a broken wrist.
In a letter to Emma Fairweather, Prince Philip, 97, suggested glare from the winter sun may have been to blame for the incident as he pulled out from a side road on to the A149 near the Sandringham estate in Norfolk on 17 January.
Continue reading...A winter storm that contributed to at least five deaths in the US midwest pummeled the mid-Atlantic region for a second day on Sunday, bringing with it an icy mix that knocked out power, cancelled flights and contributed to hundreds of car accidents.
Virginia state police said the driver of a military surplus vehicle was killed late on Saturday after he lost control on Interstate 81 due to slick road conditions.
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