protest

When Premiers Destroy Bike Lanes, I Make Games

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Image of cyclists in Toronto on Bloor Street riding in support of protected cycling.
Image of cyclists in Toronto on Bloor Street riding in support of protected cycling.

I live in Toronto, the capital of Ontario, Canada and this week the Premier of the province has delivered on his promise to make traffic worse and endanger the lives of people within the city. Yes, you read that right. A sitting politician has excitedly made life more dangerous for his constituents. He’s so into ensuring commuting is more dangerous that the legislation makes it so you can’t sue the government if you get injured (or worse!). Of course, I’m talking about Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s $48 million destruction of road safety infrastructure in Toronto on Bloor St.

Don’t take my word for it: ask the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, health care workers, student unions, more health care workers, and of course Cycle Toronto. Even people that love roads are opposed to removing bike lanes!

As a human being who thinks road safety is important I got mad at Ford’s wasteful spending which will make my city worse. I emailed every Conservative MPP and didn’t get a single response (but added to their newsletters which might be illegal). I went to rallies, signed petitions, and did all the things one ought to do to try and correct bad government planning. I’ve even emailed and called ATS Traffic and Verdi Alliance. For context, the photo above is from one action to protect the lanes.

Obviously, none of those approaches worked (yet) so I turned my frustration into games. First I made Dougie’s Delusion which is all about the fantasy of our premier that we can go back to the early 80s when allegedly dealing drugs, ummm I mean delivering packages, was easy on mostly empty streets. You can play it embedded here, click on the full screen button in the bottom right of the frame.

Also playable on itch.io.

Newer creations

Since then I have made more games and interactive things, you can try them all now.

Gridlock vs. Flow
A puzzle game about urban transit efficiency. Assign lanes to cars, buses, and bikes across four levels. This game demonstrates the efficiencies of sustainable transportation options.

Bike Lane Myth Buster
Just a little quiz meant to get people to realize that their assumptions about traffic may be incorrect. Yes, bike lanes are good for moving people within a city and great for local economies.

Car vs. Bike Lifetime Cost Analyzer
See how much you can save by riding a bicycle. This is just an interactive graph. Hint: it’s a lot.

Conservative Bike Simulator
This is the most ambitious so far and it’s not any good yet. Feedback is welcome on this first-person bike riding game where you randomly get doored and cars randomly veer into you if you’re not in a protected bike lane. I went so far as downloading OSM data to try and recreate Bloor street in detail.

One More Lane
Erase a bike lane and see how well traffic flows. Spoiler: traffic gets worse. The game makes every cyclist into a car driver at a 1:1 conversion rate, there is no induced demand. This clearly demonstrates how much bike lanes speed up traffic for all road users.

Good news!

I want to end on a positive note that Cycle Toronto has decided to take their challenge of the lane removal all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada! Stay safe on those dangerous car-filled streets my friends!

On the first night we got the destruction crew to call it quits:

First and second truck have left. LFG🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

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— Tom Flood (@tomflood.bsky.social) October 13, 2026 at 7:55 PM

There is clearly a culture shift in the city since 2012 when Doug Ford’s brother ripped out a bike lane and it was just me and one other person there trying to stop it.

A lot has changed since Nov. 13 2012 when I protested Rob Ford removing bike lanes on Jarvis. The only other protester there was @fuzzywuzzyto.bsky.social (who got arrested minutes before I arrived). I slowed down the machine the rest of the way at least.

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— Adam (@mrfaceplant.bsky.social) October 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM

What the Occupy Wall Street People are Mad About

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Occupy Wall Street (OWS) started with very little media attention and now even Fox News has to acknowledge that the movement exists. Sure the Faux News coverage is horrendous and all they seem to be able to do is support religious anarchists on the fringe.) Still, the movement is growing and with that growth the mainstream media is forced to acknowledge the concerns of the OWS movement.

What are those concerns anyway?

Well, like most social-conscious protest movements you’ll be hard pressed to find an agreed upon idea of what should change and when. This is a good thing because it forces people to talk and constantly reassess their priorities and negotiate with one another to improve everyone’s standing.

Business Insider has done a great job of summarizing the plethora of concerns that people have that has lead to the OWS movement.

Do they have legitimate gripes?
To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.
And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly “de-stabilized,” as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.
The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation’s history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.
In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between “labor” and “capital,” there has rarely—if ever—been a time when “capital” was so clearly winning.

Get a load of all the graphs here.

I’ll leave you with what I think is the most striking graph and description:

And, by the way, few people would have a problem with inequality if the American Dream were still fully intact—if it were easy to work your way into that top 1%. But, unfortunately, social mobility in this country is also near an all-time low.

And as a final thought and fun thing, here’s Chris Hedges taking Kevin O’Leary to school.

Now it’s up to everyone to play the game of making the economy more just and fair for all the players.