From David Godin (our TO correspondent):
Monday morning in Toronto nine pedestrians were hit by cars in the span of 43 minutes. The Toronto Police Service’s response was to remind pedestrians that they are more likely to be hit this time of year and to remember to use marked crossings (as most of the victims were doing) and to wear bright clothing (not that this made any difference in Surrey’s recent hit and run).
Needless to say, this is a classic example of blaming the victim and “ignoring the bull”, to borrow a phrase from Mikael Colville-Andersen of Copenhaganize. Christopher Hume of the Toronto Star wrote a good piece today about the complete inadequacy of the police’s response to this spate of hit and runs and the ongoing daily average of six pedestrian injuries. …
To address any lingering doubt that the car still rules in Toronto and that the ‘war on the car’ is being thoroughly won by the car and lost by everyone else, I submit the following photos. They illustrate what to me is the single most bizarre sight in the city: cars are legally allowed to park on many sidewalks.
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This last one is in front of the security building in the Ryerson campus and about 20 metres away from the recent permanent pedestrianization of a half-block of Gould Street that the City and school touts as unassailable evidence that pedestrians are the priority)
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This photo illustrates that concern was well founded that Toronto’s first protected bicycle lane would be ineffective at protecting the bicycle lane. (It reminds me of the issues the Carrall Street Greenway experiences in the block between Keefer and Pender.)
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A severe rain storm resulted in sheets of water pouring off of the Don Valley Parkway and the wash out a small section of the multi-use trail. Cones and barriers went up but no effort was made to quickly repair the gap, or at least bridge it in some way so through access could continue. This obstacle occurred in an awkward location where pedestrians and cyclists would have had to backtrack the better part of a kilometre in either direction to exit the trail system and no pedestrian or cycling-friendly parallel route exists.
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The City promotes the Don Valley Trail as a viable commuting route for cyclists and it is policy to promote off-street bike routes over on-street options whenever possible. Throughout most of the non-winter months hundreds of cyclists commute daily to downtown along the Don Valley Trail, not to mention those who walk and cycle for recreation.
In the City’s defence, several hundred meters back on one approach to this obstacle an attempt had been made to rope off the entire path, though no sign or map of an alternative route was included and the barriers had been moved off to the side by people. On the other approach a handful of cones (and again, no sign or map) had been scattered beside the path a few hundred meters away and these, too, gave no indication that one could not continue through along the Trail.
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An interesting project is being floated through Kickstarter (a crowd-funding platform) for a bike horn that produces the same note and volume as that found on most automobiles. I’m not sure whether you are comfortable linking readers to commercial offerings, but it’s an interesting project and one that certainly appeals to me as a cyclist. I would expect that the horn would end up being held in reserve for when a cyclists needs to communicate with motorists or in general emergency situations. The rest of the time they would still rely on their bell to signal when passing other cyclists, parked cars, and pedestrians.
I think you will find that the cars parked on what appear to be sidewalks are actually parked on paved private frontage on the lots of the adjacent buildings. The sidewalks are actually the much narrower part of the paved surface that is part of the public right of way abutting the curb.
Or, Torontonians are taking a page from the Paris playbook and parking wherever they damn well please.
I was a bit shocked at the VPD response to the recent pedestrian deaths – most were in marked crosswalks, so what do they do? Blame the victim, remind us to use marked crosswalks, and then step up ticketing of pedestrians! Usually the VPD is a pretty people-friendly force but I think they’ve lost the plot on this one.
I’m at the point now where I basically avoid marked crosswalks because they are SO incredibly dangerous. When I cross mid-block between traffic (lots of gaps as lights change, etc) _I_ get to have control over my own person, safety, and security. Meanwhile, when I cross legally at a marked crosswalk I’m handing my life over to some random who may or may not decide to run into me. It’s really astonishing how unsafe crosswalks are, and yet when someone is hit in a crosswalk, the response seems to be that its their own fault?!
To this day I have NEVER had a close call when crossing mid-block (granted, I cross intelligently and don’t just dive into traffic and expect cars to stop), but am constantly intimidated and pushed while in crosswalks. It drives me bonkers.
It is a very funny thing that in pedestrian/car accidents, we always expect pedestrians to wear bright clothes, be more cautious, etc. as if the act of walking on a sidewalk or near a crosswalk means walkers are taking your life in their hands. What is wrong with driver education, better prosecution for pedestrian crashes, and drilling into drivers the fragility of walkers and bikers who do not have two tons of steel protecting them? I have recently been accosted by a driver that stopped her SUV to say that I was “looking at her funny” while I was walking down a street with a young puppy. Its also challenging as a pedestrian to respond to a belligerent driver who is driving two tons of steel and goes out of her way not to be courteous to a pedestrian but to be confrontational. What is going on?
Regarding the Toronto experience of parking your car on your private boulevard next to the public right of way. That is nasty, nasty, and yet again shows that the car is KIng, sandwiching the pedestrian between the car on the private boulevard and the car on the travelled portion of the road.
Surely the time is ripe for walkers and pedestrians to simply demand that City Councils across the mainland instigate pedestrian committees of council to address these and other walking challenges.
sidewalk parking is what ‘keying’ is for
I sympathize with the police because there really isn’t a whole lot they can do. With right turns allowed on red lights, most cars that don’t actually hit someone aren’t breaking any laws. The problem with statutes like “driving without due care and attention” is that there’s no way to know that a driver is breaking the law until the accident has already happened.
But I do grow tired of the “wear bright clothing” mantra because I don’t think it’s the best advice. It suggests that motorists won’t hit you if you’re visible, and that’s simply not true. The fact of the matter is that motorists are humans just like the rest of us who can get distracted and make mistakes. You’re living on borrowed time if you walk around with the attitude every driver will see and avoid you.
IMHO the best advice is to assume that the drivers AREN’T paying attention. If they’re not paying attention, then YOU have to. Don’t step out onto a street, whether it’s in a marked crosswalk or not, without first looking around to make sure it’s safe. It takes two to make an accident – an idiot and the victim who didn’t see it coming.
If we want to address pedestrian deaths there is a simple solution that I believe will help a lot: ban right turns on red. Montreal doesn’t allow it, neither does Germany at the very least, and likely many more jurisdictions that I’m not aware of. It goes a long way to avoiding conflict and stopping the real people who are at fault: drivers, not pedestrians.
At the signed pedestrian crosswalk:
I have been in the crosswalk where one car is stopped and one in the other drives through.
This week I waited at the crosswalk and carried a flashing light to alert the drivers closest to me, still drove through without stopping.
At the traffic light crosswalk:
Last week I nearly had a left turning vehicle drive into myself, wife, baby and dog as we were going on the crosswalk with the pedestrian light on.
Why have I not heard of police stepping up enforcement of crosswalks by doing sting operations where they act like pedestrians and see who stops and who doesn’t?
Couple of realities that non-drivers may not be aware of:
WRT left turns, if the streetlights do not properly light a crosswalk (i.e. in heavily treed residential areas), the driver may not see the pedestrians in the crosswalk until he/she is partially through the turn when his/her headlights light them up – drivers should take turns slowly in such areas.
In addition, if there are oncoming vehicles with very bright headlights (i.e. SUV), a driver waiting to turn left can be momentarily blinded just before executing their turn.
The bottom line is to act defensively (just like the signs say to drive defensively (against other drivers). Be aware of your surroundings.
For all you know, the driver may be drunk or high on drugs.
Well, I think it’s a ridiculous situation. Even if the vehicles are indeed allowed to park on what appears (rightly or wrongly) to be sidewalks, it’s very difficult for pedestrians to work their way around them. Of course sub-zero weather and icy streets do not help. Defensive walking, as one of the other comments said, is fine and dandy but not all of us are 20-somethings, with no packages or children to concern us.