As extraordinary as it seems, the City of Toronto do not have Kyle Ashley, the parking enforcement officer who was passionate about pedestrian and bicycle rights back at his job. What a unique opportunity this was for Toronto with its very high crash and fatality rate to rewrite its relationship with the car by developing a new social contract that allowed for active transportation advocacy. But no. As reported in the Toronto Star Mr. Ashley is on “personal sick leave without pay” and the “Toronto Police Association has filed a grievance with the police service over his treatment.”
Price Tags Vancouver has previously written about Mr. Ashley who approached parked vehicles in bike lanes and parked trucks in corner pedestrian crossings with an upfront refreshing vigilantism, trying to make Toronto streets safer for the most vulnerable users.
“Ashley burst onto Toronto’s commuting scene in June when he convinced his bosses to let him focus solely on protecting bike lanes. His cheeky use of Twitter to scold motorists, including delivery companies, who invade bike lanes, earned applause from cyclists, Toronto’s then-chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat and Mayor John Tory.”
Mr. Ashley even got Canada Post to agree to stop its trucks parking and using bike lanes after being identified as a guilty party. That alone deserves kudos, not a reprimand. He did criticize outside of his jurisdiction on his twitter account which resulted in his twitter account being deactivated. But in the midst of a Toronto winter and a badly needed advocate for safe cycling and good driver education, here’s hoping Mr. Ashley is back in the bike saddle soon, ticketing and tweeting about vehicular transgressors that make Toronto’s streets less safe for vulnerable users.
And here is a short video of Mr. Ashley and his approach to his work keeping bike lanes safe for users. We could all use a few more Mr. Ashleys in cities across Canada.
Author
Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.