Bike advocates urge ‘state of emergency’
After latest cyclist death, urban planners, politicians demand city act and treat road safety as a ‘crisis’
Asurge in cyclists and pedestrians dying on Toronto streets is triggering demands that Mayor John Tory, city council and the Ontario government act now to stop the carnage.
“I am calling for a state of emergency, which means treating this crisis as a high priority and investing in immediate measures to create a safe environment for vulnerable road users,” Jennifer Keesmaat, Toronto’s former chief planner, now a University of Toronto lecturer, told the Star Wednesday.
“The SARS crisis took 44 lives in Canada. Ninety-three pedestrians or cyclists have died on the streets of Toronto since Vision Zero was implemented two years ago. The time for half-measures is over — and the half measures are not working, anyway.”
Jessica Spieker, who suffered a broken spine and brain injury when a car hit her bike in 2015, said council is “horribly failing” implementing Vision Zero — a plan to reduce traffic deaths to zero by 2021— when more, not fewer, people are dying.
“The impact is literally life and death,” said Spieker, a member of advocacy group Friends and Families for Safe Streets.
Richard Florida, a renowned University of Toronto cities expert who immigrated from the U.S. a decade ago, called efforts by Tory, his council allies and the provincial government to protect vulnerable road users “shockingly neglectful.”
“The way in which Americans discount gun deaths, Torontonians and their leaders seem to discount car-related deaths — like there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.
By the Star’s count there were 41pedestrian deaths in 2017, and 18 so far this year.
Toronto police traffic fatality figures are lower because they do not include those on private property or 400-series highways in Toronto, which are the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police. The official police tally for 2017 was 36, and the force says 17 pedestrians have died in 2018.
For the same reason, the Star’s count of cyclist deaths is also higher than Toronto police figures. The Star has counted four cyclist deaths this year, police have counted three, excluding the March 20 death of a cyclist who hit a parked car in North York. Neither tally includes homicide victims.
A 58-year-old woman was killed Tuesday while riding in a protected Bloor St. bike lane when she collided with a turning flatbed truck at Bloor St., W. and St. George St. Officers on Tuesday also announced a 36-year-old cyclist hit May 15 on Lake Shore Blvd. W. died from his injuries last week.
Tory and his public works chair Coun. Jaye Robinson are touting steps including new bike lanes and establishing “safety zones” around all elementary schools, which double fines and open the door to photo radar in those zones, if Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government gives approval.
Critics want immediate changes including speed limits dropped to 30 km/h across Toronto, tougher penalties for killer motorists, more and better protected bike lanes, roads redesigned to slow rather than speed traffic, and more, better marked pedestrian crossings.
After an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Tory said he is losing sleep over the deaths.
“Of all the things that gives me sleepless nights and has me needing us to do more is people dying on the streets,” he said, noting that some changes take time, but others are being be done now, including “watch your speed” signs in school zones and photo radar.
Tory tweeted that his thoughts are with the Bloor St. cyclist and her family, which was met with online scorn, with some noting the mayor fought the temporarily shelved “Transform Yonge” plan to reduce vehicle lanes on north Yonge St. and install protected bike lanes.
Coun. Joe Cressy said he and colleague Mike Layton are working on short-term and permanent changes to make the Bloor St. protected bike lanes safer. He said council has focused on “easy fixes” when it could have been redesigning streets to make people move safely, not quicker. The recently defeated Ontario Liberal government has also been scolded for lack of action. It passed the Safer School Zones Act last year to allow cities to use measures like photo radar within safety zones but failed to fully enact it.
To automatically increase penalties against drivers that injure or kill pedestrians or cyclists, road safety advocates for years have pushed the province to adopt the Protecting Vulnerable Road Users Act. They have yet to be successful.
Re-elected NDP MPP Catherine Fife reintroduced the bill in April, and said it is one of the first items she will move forward when the Legislature is recalled.
“Every MPP should understand we’re at a crisis in terms of cycling and pedestrian safety,” she said.
Safety advocates expressed fear the new PC government will do nothing to protect pedestrians and cyclists, or obstruct Toronto efforts to do so.
Jeff Silverstein, a Ford spokesman, said Wednesday: “Our focus right now is on transition but moving forward we will take a close look at this and review all options that would make our streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians.