Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD

@mbonsma.bsky.social

13648 Followers 1858 Following

Transportation data scientist at the University of Toronto, physicist at heart. I post about bikes and safe streets, local politics, and sometimes science. She/her.

A reply to my post that says "Perhaps your reality perceives this. I see the reality of others suggesting otherwise. It is possible to be educated past reality."
Another page from "A Minor Chorus" by Billy-Ray Belcourt. "From year to year things changed very little, one's threats to existence remained the same, and so liveliness coalesced as the negation of change, of difference. A common enemy, in other words, is another name for social cohesion. The conservative base was being held together by always-intensifying emotions, by heteropatriarchal feelings of possessorship and nativism in particular that found expression as rage and self-pity. The former was regularly aimed at others, the non-normative, namely queers and immigrants, who were coded as squatters on the private property of the everyday. Rather than ameliorate their state of loss, rather than build a political system that by definition would democratize institutional care, conservatives chose again and again to live in a dead world, one that was programmed only to amplify its deadness. It seemed to me that their dogma could be summarized like this: 'If we're all subject to planetary catastrophe, if we experience the same intensity of existential fragility as the downtrodden, let us descend into madness and disaster, but we will govern the pace!'"
A page from "A Minor Chorus" by Billy-Ray Belcourt. "Already the ruling party had implemented austerity measures the only survivors of which would be the upper classes. Secondary school urriculum was being demodernized, teachers and nurses were being fired, health care was being privatized, amenities and resources were being deregulated, climate change was being accelerated. From the outside, from a leftist standpoint, it appeared as if it were a marker of political action to endorse the cheapening of one's quality of life, that it was normal and a generational birthright to vote on the side of structurally induced hardship. Perhaps one wanted to conjure a scapegoat, something (a government) and someone (a politician) to blame when one's individual or familial struggles to live a good life fell short, acting on a suspicion that the game was rigged against them, though a culture of anti-intellectualism would prevent them from diagnosing why. A punishing government was a burden they could choose, one that would keep them from installing too much optimism in what a future could reap."
Yellow evening primrose flowers
A person biking with a cycling jersey on that says "YES I DO HAVE A RETIREMENT PLAN. I PLAN ON CYCLING"
Google search trends report for "Mexico national anthem" showing a >5000% increase over the past hour
Two kids in an Urban Arrow cargo bike. One is a baby in a car seat. (Photo from 2024)
Me spinning the book bollard
A metal bollard in front of the Cambridge University library shaped like a stack of books. The books actually rotate individually too.
A pair of colourwork mittens in progress. One mitten says "CARS" and the other says "SUCK", and they have little designs of bikes all over.
My flower of proximity: in an ideal world I want to walk to most things within 10 minutes.
A red phone booth and many people biking down a road in Cambridge, UK
Some of my survey answers. 8. What mitigations would help address environmental impacts related to airport growth? A: not growing the airport 9. What noise-related factors should be considered in future airport planning? A: noise impacts on human health and wildlife, noise impacts on enjoyment of the waterfront 10. What approaches could help mitigate or manage noise impacts for surrounding communities? A: not expanding the airport
According to Gautreau, counts during peak cycling months can reach roughly 50 cyclists per rush hour, while winter numbers can drop substantially, particularly in poor weather. The amateur data-collection effort comes amid continuing debate over cycling infrastructure in the municipality. Gautreau is among residents who question whether some investments in bike lanes reflect actual usage levels. He argues municipalities could gather more accurate information by using cameras to record and review cyclist traffic at multiple locations throughout the year. “If HRM really wanted accurate counts of where and when these bicycles are showing up, all they would have to do is use a couple of cameras and make the counts,” he said.
My Urban Arrow cargo bike with a flat of plants just visible in the bottom of the bike
Two Urban Arrow cargo bikes parked mirror-image at a set of bike racks
Subway ad: "12 pm maple Caesar salad. It's always time for maple." Bowl of very tasty-looking salad pictured. Ad producer is "Maple from Canada"
Kombucha girl meme. First panel she is trying the kombucha: "first nice day of spring: bike congestion". Second panel she is frowning: "second nice day: bike congestion". Third panel she is making a "maybe" face: "third nice day: bike congestion"
My Pedal Poll results from Yonge at Shaftesbury: 108 bikes, 58 e-bikes, 35 shared bikes, 3 cargo bikes, 26 e-scooters, 1232 pedestrians, 2 "other", and 82 e-motos.
Historical data for the Pedal Poll location at Yonge and Shaftesbury showing between 600-900 bikes counted in the last two years and 2753 total bikes over four years.
My Pedal Poll count results at Victoria Park and Danforth: 25 bikes, 23 e-bikes, 3 bike share bikes, 9 e-scooters, 522 pedestrians, and 43 e-motos. #SondoVelo #PedalPollSondoVelo
Mobilizing Justice survey (https://survey.mobilizingjustice.ca/explore): to what extent do you agree with the following statements? I feel forced to own a car to access my daily activities. Of 296 respondents in Greater Sudbury / Thunder Bay, 41.1% say they completely agree, 20% say agree, 19% neutral, 11.7% disagree, and 8.3% completely disagree.
To what extent do you agree with the following statements? I feel forced to use active transport (walking, using a wheelchair or bicycle) to access my daily activities 7.6% say completely agree, 10.1% agree, 22.7% neutral, 15.9% disagree, 43.8% completely disagree.
Mobilizing Justice survey (https://survey.mobilizingjustice.ca/explore): to what extent do you agree with the following statements? I feel forced to own a car to access my daily activities. Of 21,301 respondents, 38.9% say they completely agree, 21% say agree, 20.2% neutral, 8.3% disagree, and 11.6% completely disagree.
Do you have a driver's license? 24,901 responses split into three household income groups: <60k, 60-120k, and 120k+. The lowest group has 79% with driver's license, the highest group is 96%.
Copilot chat screenshot: You said: What are some pop or folk songs that have a flat-7 chord in them Copilot said: In pop and folk music, the ♭VII (flat-seven) chord—borrowed from Mixolydian or modal harmony—is super common. It often gives songs a laid‑back, rootsy, or anthemic feel. Below are some well-known examples across pop and folk (plus adjacent rock/indie, where the sound is especially prominent). 🎵 Classic & Folk-leaning songs with ♭VII 1. “Sweet Home Alabama” – Lynyrd Skynyrd Key: D Progression: D – C – G Here, C = ♭VII One of the most iconic uses—basically the whole song revolves around it.
Me in front of my cargo bike with my son inside under the rain cover. My face is very wet.
Bags of soil and a pack of toilet paper in the back of my Tern GSD e-cargo bike in the drive through soil pickup at Canadian Tire
Percentage of vehicles going 50+ km/h on Parkside, monthly from December 2023 to April 2026. The percentage is between 5 and 10% until the camera ban, at which point it climbs to over 25%
Percentage of vehicles going 60+ km/h on Parkside, monthly from December 2023 to April 2026. The percentage is between 1 and 2% until the camera ban, at which point it climbs to 4%
A person riding the long zipline at Biidaasige Park with downtown Toronto in the background
Revitalised wetland at Biidaasige Park with downtown Toronto in the background
The cover of "Children & Their Urban Environment: Changing Worlds" by Claire Freeman & Paul Tranter
Two high-rise apartment buildings (Leaside Towers) in the background of a forest just leafing out in ET Seton Park
Urban Arrow front bucket cargo bike with a chalk easel and baby inside
Proposed E-bike Class 1 and Class 2: Key Operator, Vehicle and Safety Requirements Class 1 and Class 2: Required to have an exposed frame, not covered by body panels, and cannot have a footrest or a platform for the operator’s feet Propulsion Method (class 1): Pedal-assist only with exemption to permit a throttle or button for “walk-assist function” up to 6km/h (class 2): May be throttle, button or pedal assist Pedals (class 1 and class 2): Must be equipped at all times with functional hand cranks or foot pedals that are capable of propelling the bicycle by muscular power and are usable during normal operation of the bicycle; however, continuous pedalling is not required. Pedals are not considered functional if their placement, configuration, or operation renders them impractical, unsafe, or incapable of providing meaningful propulsion during normal riding conditions. Wheels (class 1 and class 2): Designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground Maximum Unladen Weight Class 1: 55 kilograms Class 2: 120 kilograms* *If passed, the Ministry would explore amending Ontario’s Cargo E-bike Pilot Regulation (O.Reg. 141/21) to update the minimum weight requirement for cargo e-bikes from 55kg to 120kg. Maximum Power-Assisted Speed (class 1 and class 2): 32 kilometres/hour Seat Requirements (class 1 and class 2): Operator seat height must be adjustable Maximum Motor Power (class 1 and class 2): Total continuous power output rating, measured at the shaft of each motor, of 500 W or less
Distribution of suggested speed limits for micromobility devices and cars in a survey of 1500 Montreal residents. The micromobility speed limits tend to fall around 20 and 30 km/h, while the car speed limits are mostly at 30 and 40 km/h.
Population injury rate per million kilometres traveled by e-bike or conventional bike in Oslo, Norway. E-bike injury rates are higher from Jan-March (7.46 per million km vs 3.06 per million km), but for all other quarters and over the full year, e-bike injury rates are lower than for conventional bikes.
XKCD "Standards" comic. How standards proliferate: (see: A/C chargers, character encodings, instant messaging, etc) Panel 1 Situation: there are 14 competing standards Panel 2 Person 1: "14?! Ridiculous! We need to develop one universal standard that covers everyone's use cases." Person 2: "Yeah!" Panel 3 Soon: there are 15 competing standards.
My friend's and my arm in front of the field at the Sky Dome, wearing bracelets that say "Let's go Blue Jays" and "Go Jays"
My 6-year-old in a head to toe rainbow outfit biking down a trail in front of my cargo bike
Google street view of Bayview Avenue near Millwood. The street is a classic Toronto 4-lane arterial with street parking on both sides.
Urban Arrow cargo bike with a car seat and baby and older child inside
My Urban Arrow cargo bike with my son inside eating a bagel in front of The Bagel House Montreal bagel store
Headline from carscoops.com: "Florida Woman Drove Her Lifted Truck Over A Lamborghini And Didn’t Even Notice The Huracan was crawling for a parking spot when a three-ton lifted Chevy Silverado climbed right over its front end without stopping " The photo is of the front of a giant pickup truck resting on the front half of a Lamborghini
A page from "Physics Around the Clock" by Michael Banks that talks about our puzzle piece theory. "Rather than battling on the Monopoly board, which often results in family arguments and usually ruins Christmas Day, you might prefer instead to spend your evening with something more calming - a simple jigsaw, perhaps. The jigsaw box usually states the number of pieces and perhaps the finished area of the jigsaw once complete. But we have all done that frustrating thing of tipping out the contents of the box only to find that the table we are building the jigsaw on is not big enough even to accommodate all the pieces laid out, never mind being able to build the picture at the same time. This results in putting some pieces on the table and the rest elsewhere, such as in the box or even on the floor, which makes searching for that tricky piece even more taxing. Thankfully, physicists have come to the rescue to solve this problem so you can calculate how much table space you will need to spread out all the pieces. Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher from the University of Toronto and her husband, Kent, found themselves at home during the COVID-19 pandemic with a baby and passed the time doing jigsaws. "I like to be able to see all the pieces at once when I'm doing a puzzle, so dumping out the box and turning all the pieces over in a single layer is our customary first step in puzzle-solving," Madeleine told me. "Yet our dining room table is not that big, so we often feel a bit pressed for space when solving a puzzle." They assumed that each puzzle piece is a square but then modeled the squares spread out on a table as if each were inside a circle...
The Evergreen Conference Cities bursting with life May 6-7, 2026 Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto
An Urban Arrow and Tern GSD with an easel and a large child's bike in them, respectively
A map of east Toronto that says "where do you love to ride your bike? Where do you wish you could ride your bike?" with post-it notes stuck on it
A person smiling and waving while trying an Urban Arrow with her child
A person trying an Urban Arrow cargo bike with many other people and cargo bikes in the background
Ave Mont-Royal in Montreal in 2023, with people walking to work and kids out. A McDonalds truck is making a delivery.
Walking down a pedestrianised street in Montreal on a spring evening with lots of people out walking and biking, or sitting at restaurants and on street furniture
The biggest carrot I've ever seen, like the size of a small butternut squash, from my Odd Bunch box
While cars are the assumed dominant authority over our public streets, their status is not the result of an organic process. Rather, myriad forces—highway planners, automotive interests, property developers, car drivers—have influenced the levers of policy to create a modal hierarchy with cars unquestionably at the top; in other words, car supremacy has been the ideology that results in car dominance. Crucially, adherents to the ideology of car supremacy did this by arguing that cars were the supreme mode of transportation while subordinating other mobility modes, a practice dating back to advertising campaigns of the early 20th century that turned pedestrians into the derogatory ‘‘jaywalker.’’ This paper argues that the existence of an ideology itselfparticularly one that marginalizes other mode users through cultural, structural, and direct forms of subjugation—is indicative of a supremacist social construct, one that is the presumed default against which all others are measured and around which all others are organized.
Moto monoculture The first rhetorical device, static scarcity, illuminates a deeper belief that streets should serve the needs of motorists. This beliefwhich I term moto monoculture—presents a radical departure from our traditional understanding of the purpose of our streets. Indeed, a detailed history of the car’s relatively recent rise in our society tracks perfectly alongside a concerted effort by automotive interests to transform our streets from sites of vibrant and varied civic life open to all to a monoculture of uses: unencumbered car driving (Norton, 2008). Such a focus results in a system that prioritizes the speed and storage of vehicles—despite research showing the irresistible yet flawed intuition about what causes vehicular congestion and what would ‘‘solve’’ it—and upholds values of individualism and freedom over any other objectives, such as safety, community, or play (Noland, 2001; Prytherch, 2022; te Br ̈ommelstroet et al., 2022).
Static scarcity The first rhetorical device—static scarcityis used to suggest that streets are immutable entities defined by limited space. For example, public witnesses imply in the segments below that there is only enough room on streets for car travel and parking lanes and that changes to this allocation of road space are nonsensical.
It is important to begin with one observation that better contextualizes the following results. The most prevalent theme in the data was bike lanes and related terms; this code was singularly associated with claims about a wide range of issues. Interestingly, the period of analysis coincided with the emergence of ‘‘streateries’’ (a portmanteau of ‘‘street’’ and ‘‘eatery’’) as a strategy to provide restaurant patrons with a safer outdoor dining environment and to ensure restaurants could remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic. Often, these streateries were placed as semi-permanent structures in car travel or parking lanes (rather than on sidewalks). Despite this repurposing of car space, fewer than 10% of testimonies referenced streateries and 100% of the testimonies that did reference streateries also mentioned bike lanes as the cause of their complaints. Moreover, even though users of other mobility devices use bike lanes, bicyclists were singled out. For instance, only six testimonies referenced scooter riders whereas 29 referenced people who ride bikes (48 testimonies referenced bike lanes or similar phrases or alluded to associated projects).
New York City has a history of stalling or reversing course on projects ranging from installing bus priority lanes to improving pedestrian visibility at intersections to initiating speed reduction measures on deadly streets (Coburn and Colon, 2023; Duggan, 2024, 2025; Meyer, 2025). While New York City’s congestion pricing initiative was embroiled in state and national political controversy, much of its delay—like that of the other projects listed above—stemmed from a vocal minority of privileged drivers activating their agency as participants in a sociopolitical context, not from an invisible geopolitical force or nebulous technological trend (Lebowitz, 2024). By failing to appreciate the influence of private citizens in maintaining cars as the dominant form of mobility, theories of automobility in existing scholarship miss a crucial part of the power puzzle. This project seeks to fill this gap by examining local opposition to projects that would challenge the mobility status quo.
"Car supremacy: Deconstructing the ideology driving our modal hierarchy" by Ashton Rohmer. Abstract: Cars have shaped modern life in profound ways, from restructuring our built environment to altering our notions of success. They have also had a variety of negative impacts—neighborhood destruction, resource wars, ill health, and environmental damage to name a few—which are largely normalized in our collective psyches. Existing theories of the rise of the automobile are focused on macro-forces such as a globalizing political economy; while important, these fail to explain how local transportation policy has been leveraged by members of the general public to perpetuate an unjust system of automobility. This article argues that our existing beliefs about who has a right to exist in our public rights of way are socially constructed through an ideology of car supremacy. This ideology is used by private citizens in public meetings to prevent our streets from being safe, accessible, and equitable for all road users. Using existing literature and a critical discourse analysis of empirical data gathered from local public meetings, this article defines the core convictions of the ideology of car supremacy—moto monoculture, auto impunity, and modal marginalization—and demonstrates how individuals enact it in public discourse through three rhetorical devices—static scarcity, blame inversion, and nefarious minority—to create a modal hierarchy that marginalizes non-car users. Moreover, this article suggests how urban planners and policy makers can cultivate civic engagement practices that curtail the harmful system of power perpetuated by the ideology of car supremacy.