Video game captures the ‘abject terror’ of cycling in Toronto. Welcome to ‘Loser Lane’
Creator Marie LeBlanc Flanagan, frustrated with Doug Ford’s plan to remove bike lanes in Toronto, coded the impossible-to-beat video game in just two weeks.
Bobbing and weaving through traffic — an opening door on the right, cars within spitting distance on the left — the margin between life and death is a pixel large.
I make it to Gus Tacos before a car inches into the right lane, putting me on a collision course with an open car door. I collide, and then die again.
After death, a message in bright pink letters flashes before me: “I survived 18 seconds without a bike lane. Thanks Doug.”
Bobbing and weaving through traffic — an opening door on the right, cars within spitting distance on the left — the margin between life and death is a pixel large. Marie LeBlanc Flanagan created “Loser Lane” after they heard about Doug Ford’s bike lane legislation.
A former Toronto resident, now living in Montreal, Flanagan knows all too well the dangers of riding outside of a bike lane — their younger sister was in an accident that required years of rehab, they also lost a beloved uncle to a cycling accident.
