Wrong Message, Karen

The Chair of the TTC got a $110 traffic ticket for riding her bike through a stop sign yesterday.

And she is going to fight it.

She admits to rolling through multiple stop signs on that same ride, but is going to flight this one a technicality.

It was just over a year ago that the police stopped her for a similar infraction.

In almost the same place.  She got off with a warning.

At the time, she tweeted; "Just got pulled over by Toronto’s finest for rolling through a stop-sign on my bike. Pls cycle safely ;).”

That is the appropriate response.

The appropriate response is not admitting to rolling through multiple stop signs, then vowing to fight the ticket because of a typo.   What kind of message is that?

This time she thought she was going to get another warning.  As she related to the Star; “He went into his car,” she said, “and I figured, OK, I’m going to get a warning. And he came out with a $110 ticket. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you serious?’”

So she is fighting this on the grounds that he allegedly wrote the wrong intersection on the ticket.

Maybe he did, but come on, her response should have been; "My bad.  Pls cycle safely ;)".

Someone said, now that she is considering a mayoral run, she's trying to develop an edgier, gritter attitude to appeal to the hip, downtown crowd.

Which obviously includes dissing the police.

Because she took a potshot at them as well, as the Star also reports;

"Stintz also urged Toronto Police, through Twitter, to focus on drivers blocking transit lanes rather than cyclists on residential streets. 

“I love Toronto Police but suggest less of an enforcement clampdown on cyclists and more of one on King transit lanes,” she tweeted."

Gotta love politicians......