Traffic island unsafe for people
Bathurst-Lake Shore site leaves pedestrians vulnerable to vehicles
Crossing any multi-lane street on foot in Toronto can be a risky business, but nowhere is it more dangerous than at Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Bathurst St.
With six lanes of traffic on one side of a traffic island in the middle of Lake Shore, and several more lanes — including two sets of streetcar tracks — on the other side, it’s a long trek to cross from one side of Lake Shore to the other.
Some people don’t make it all the way across before the light turns red. They end up standing on the long, narrow island to wait for the next green light, leaving them exposed to speeding vehicles that could crash into it.
The island is surrounded by waist-high metal barriers, but they provide no real protection from an out-of-control vehicle that mounts the island, where people are standing.
It happens more often than you think, according to Beth French, who has lived in the area for 25 years and says she avoids the island because of the danger.
French emailed to say new black-and-orange barriers recently installed at the east end of the island were mowed down last week, punctuating the lack of protection for people marooned on it while waiting to cross.
“Today, my son noticed that the black ones were knocked over this morning, between the time he went to the gym at 6 a.m. and the time he returned,” she said.
“This means he just missed being on the island when a vehicle struck the barriers.
“Apparently people have been leaving notes on the barriers, asking for bollards instead of flimsy metal barriers because ‘this keeps happening’ and ‘people don’t want to die on this island.’ ”
French said she’d like to see better protection for people and a longer walk signal for pedestrians crossing Lake Shore, so they are less likely to be stranded on the island.
“This is a fatal accident waiting to happen here. People are going to die. It is only a matter of time.” We went there and found three flattened barriers next to the pedestrian crossing and were unnerved by the speed of traffic heading west through the intersection at Bathurst. A cement mixer nearly brushed the island while we standing on it, about a metre away.
The island is also used as a waiting area for a TTC streetcar stop, which only adds to the number of people who are vulnerable to an accident.
A Google Street View image dated July 2018 shows grey metal barriers at the east end of the island, later replaced by black ones. That means they’ve been mowed down twice in the last few months. STATUS: We’ve asked transportation services to replace the damaged barriers and to consider putting up more formidable protection for people. We’ve also asked if the timing of the lights could be changed to give pedestrians more time to get across.