John Tory, Hands Off Cyclists

By. A. MacMillan

Earlier this month, the Twitter account of Toronto Mayor John Tory gave high praise to Toronto’s new automated speed enforcement cameras, which reported to have issued more than 43,000 tickets in June and July of this year. In the tweet, Tory stated 'these cameras are one of the many ways we are working to make our streets safer for all and to further increase enforcement on speeding and reckless drivers across the city.'

Tory’s social media post sheds light on an issue that is slowly becoming a part of the forefront of this year’s municipal election campaign — road safety. Despite what Tory says about making Toronto’s streets safer, the reality is that the streets of this city are becoming increasingly dangerous to all road users who are not motorists.

Last year, the CBC reported that at least 25 pedestrians were killed in Toronto’s streets. As of September of this year, 19 pedestrian ‘road users’ fatalities have been recorded in the city of Toronto. It’s fair to say that the city’s stated ‘Vision Zero’ goal has become an outright failure, as the average number of pedestrian deaths from 2018 to 2021 was just over 30 per year.

Tory’s social post on Tuesday comes after a long weekend filled with dangerous incidents involving motorists in the city streets. On Friday, a motorist in High Park fled the scene after witnesses say they intentionally struck a cyclist with their vehicle. The cyclist suffered a serious concussion in the incident, along with other debilitating injuries. The assault was reported to the police, and is currently being investigated.

Cyclists in High Park have been the target of abuse by both motorists and the police this summer, with this just being one of a series of incidents involving cyclists being harassed and assaulted, a pattern that has continued throughout the city.

On Saturday, another incident involving a reckless and violent motorist took place in Toronto, this time in two different areas of the city. According to police, a 9-1-1 call was made at 11:57 a.m on Saturday, after a hit and run at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue West. A motorist driving a Jeep Patriot was headed eastbound on St. Clair Avenue, and allegedly struck a 26-year-old pedestrian on the west side of the intersection, hit a 65-year-old pedestrian on the other side of the intersection, and then fled the scene. The first victim of the hit and run managed to escape, while the second victim was rushed to hospital in critical condition. The driver then continued towards the city's east end, and struck a cyclist at the intersection of Jarvis Street and Maitland Place, before being pinned by two police vehicles at the intersection of Lower Jarvis and Queens Quay East. The cyclist was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

These incidents are a stark example of how unsafe Toronto’s roads are, and how the problem can not be fixed simply by speed cameras or increased ticketing.Toronto's traffic by-laws are not adequate when it comes to protecting pedestrians and cyclists, and have grown outdated in the modern metropolis this city has become. Simple traffic by-laws that could protect pedestrians, including no turns on red lights, and more left on green light intersections, have been proposed but passed up by the mayor and city council.

Research shows motorists that speed the most are the ones who are least affected by a simple speeding ticket. The penalties for these violations have little to no effect on the violators, as the fines for those who can afford luxury sports cars and motorcycles are oftentimes too small and too infrequent to make any kind of headway towards discouraging speeding and reckless driving. In reality, automated speed enforcement does very little to keep Toronto’s streets safe.

It’s just a cash grab.

A perfect example of this can be reflected in the city's photo radar data that was released on Monday, which shows that 10% of all 43,000+ tickets handed out in June and July via speed cameras were from one small stretch of dangerous roadway on Parkside Drive in the city's west end.

Without constant and consistent enforcement, the city has only seen an increase in vehicle related fatalities, with the pedestrian to motorist ratio in those fatalities having increased substantially over the last five years.

Speed cameras only work if the cameras are set up in areas that are dangerous to non-motorists. If the city’s only goal of setting up speed cameras is to catch speeders, rather than protecting the public, the overall impact of these automated speed cameras will ultimately not be productive at ensuring public safety, but far more productive at generating municipal revenue.

The difference here can be life altering. Many of Toronto's side streets are marked with 30kph speed limit signs, and these signs are oftentimes ignored. This may seem trivial to most drivers, but to pedestrians it's the matter of life and death. According to an NTSB study in 2017, a pedestrian who is hit by a car going 30 KPH has about 16 times better chance at survival than someone who gets hit by a car going 50 KPH. Yet the majority of the city’s speed cameras can not be found in these traffic calming areas, but are mostly in high traffic areas for motorists, rather than pedestrians.

A look at the major cities of Europe shows that our city is falling behind steeply when it comes to bicycle inclusion. For those who have spent any time in any major European city, this is a stark contrast to what we see here. Toronto is a city that fails to utilize the very basic tools for pedestrian safety, while road related fatalities continue to increase year by year.

Ahead of this year’s 2022 municipal election, Toronto is in need of a city council and mayor that will fight for the rights of pedestrians and cyclists. No more revenue generating speed traps, or redundant by-laws. It is time for more bike lanes, car-free zones and traffic calming areas. It’s time for Toronto to re-embrace the four-way crossing for pedestrians, and to be enlightened by cyclist friendly bylaws like the Idaho Stop.

Toronto is a city that will continue to embrace the future, and the future is one that includes less cars, more cyclists and heck of a lot more foot traffic. It’s time we vote for those who will fight for our rights, rather than fight against them.

At the fourth MSA convention, we adopted the following policy;

A recent spate of cops ticketing (even colliding with) cyclists in High Park underscores the need for safer, more visible, self-contained bicycle paths, rather than a punitive policing approach. The MSA insists that increasing the safety of pedestrians and cyclists will aid the transition to a greener, cleaner, healthier, more sustainable urban mode of transportation.