You might have already heard of the bike sharing program in France that has been a huge hit with Parisians. Vélib' (short for vélo libre) was launched last year in Paris with around 10,000 bikes available at the near 750 stations for short term rental. That number has since skyrocketed to 20,000 available bikes and almost 1,500 automated rental stations, and it's been cited that the program has resulted in a 10 time increase in bike usage across the city.

Those numbers aren't anything to cough at, so it's no surprise that the idea is starting to take root in other cities, including Washington DC which just launched its Smart Bike DC bike sharing program in partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor. For about $40 a year, Americans in their capital get access to (an admittedly meager) 120 bikes at 10 locations around the city - but hey, it's a start.

That begs the question - with no shortage of bike advocacy groups and a renewed interest in cutting carbon - where's our bike sharing program?

Spring Cleaning season is in full swing, and now that Victoria Day has come and gone, we're ramping up for summer and all you've got is your busted and broke-looking bling to show off. Enter The Franken-Jewellery Swap. If you have a taste for DIY, this is going to be right up your alley.

Everyone brings their old jewellery, and the idea is to break 'em down, and mash 'em up - creating new jewellery from the raw materials. For a mere $5, all the necessary tools are provided, as are refreshments, music, and surely a bevy of interesting people with fun stories behind their treasures. It's like going to get parts for your car from the junkyard, except decidedly more social and creative.

This year's Pride Week celebrations might still be a couple months off, but the folks at Pride Toronto are wasting no time and have just announced that this year's Grand Marshall will be none other than Enza "Supermodel" Anderson.

Enza has been a fairly loud voice in Toronto's queer community as a regular columnist over at Metro newspaper, covering local entertainment news and "on the street" profiles.

Anderson is well known for a bid for mayor back in 2000 where she competed against Mel Lastman, taking a fairly substantial number of votes. This surprised many because of the fairly low amount of capital she put into running the campaign.

Enza hasn't been shy in declaring her intentions to run for city council in 2010; She told me as far back as last year's Pride that this was her plan, and calls her role as Grand Marshall "a stepping stone" to that goal. If she's elected, that will reportedly make her the first transsexual on a city council in Canada.

The role of Grand Marshall is to lead the Pride Parade, as well as making media appearances where necessary, in effect acting as the spokesperson for Pride Toronto.

Pride Toronto 2008 runs from June 20th to 29th this year, with Enza leading the parade on Sunday, June 29th. Keep an eye on blogTO for tons of coverage from Pride.

Photo by Adam Schwabe

Almost a year ago, hundreds of joggers and high-sock enthusiasts descended on the then-unfinished ROM reno to take part in a 5k run through the museum. Keen readers might recall that blogTO interviewed the duo that "runs with art" behind The Movement Movement on an earlier episode of the Arts Now Podcast.

Having run the ROM event myself, part of the fun was trying not to fall over the number of camera toting runners that were putting together footage for what will be shown at the premiere screening tonight at The Gladstone. Keep on reading for the deets.

Subscribers to GO Transit's E-News Alerts service are surely thrilled to read a fairly vague message about "significant train delays" forthcoming on the Lakeshore tracks (the system's busiest) over the next week:

Due to CN trackwork on the Lakeshore tracks, GO Transit is concerned that significant train delays may occur during the week of April 14 to April 18. Please allow additional time or take an earlier train, if possible. We regret any delays, but CN must do this work to maintain safety & train speed.

I suppose this is in addition to the insignificant delays caused by assclowns sloshed off their faces after a Jays game, who are single-handedly responsible for causing not only over an hour delay at Rouge Hill (and a lovely commuting experience), but an evacuation and relocation of passengers from one train to the other. Thanks GO, we heart you.

Photo by blogTO Flickr pooler theXenon

Yesterday morning I got a first look at the CN Tower's new glass-floor elevators that I wrote about last week. The novelty floor is being dubbed as "North America's first" and feature two strips of glass giving you a view of the elevator shaft below your feet rushing away.

Watch the video above as I talk to CN Tower's CEO Jack Robinson about the new floors in the elevator and take a ride up and down myself. Keep reading for some of my impressions.