On the bright side
‘Do the Bright Thing’ campaign not without merit
There’s a boomer-aged man in my building who walks his big friendly dog at night wearing a reflective vest, the kind construction workers who hold traffic signs on highways wear. The old dog lopes along slowly as the man reflects passing headlights. It’s a cute sight but I always judge him a little. The vest is a bit much.
I thought of him last month when the Toronto Police launched their “Do the Bright Thing” campaign, encouraging pedestrians (and cyclists) to wear brightly coloured clothing at night to be more visible. This was met with pedestrian and cycling advocates upset that the police were “blaming the victim.”
The advocates have a point. Our streets give the advantage to cars and there’s a long-standing feeling that police don’t take pedestrian and cycling safety issues seriously — just look at how many cars park in bike lanes with impunity.
Bike advocates say more police enforcement is needed and, critically, streets need to be designed for pedestrians and cyclists from the beginning, not as an add-on later. They pay their taxes, too, after all.
The rub is that if you drive, you know that the police, and my vestwearing neighbour, have a point. Even an attentive driver can be surprised by a pedestrian or cyclist appearing in an intersection. And the risks get larger the further you get from downtown, as the roads are bigger and faster.
But the GTA is a long, way from being anywhere near ideal, and even if that was possible, there will always be risks. Cars and people will still have to cross the same territory and people make mistakes.
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote that life is “nasty, brut- ish, and short,” but when it comes to biking and walking around the city, we do everything to forget that. Watch how many pedestrians step off a streetcar or curb without looking to see if the way is clear, trusting it’s safe simply because it’s supposed to be.
Some cycling advocates get very upset when helmets are mentioned because, they say, it makes cycling seem dangerous and will scare people away from cycling. It’s a weird kind of ostrich syndrome that may do more harm as people pedal and walk around under a false sense of security, oblivious to danger.
As spring grudgingly comes to the GTA and we take to the streets again, perhaps neon vests that would make us look like the cast of an early 1990s dance music video aren’t the fashionable answer, but being a little more aware while moving around the city would make Hobbes happy.