More than 1,000 cyclists and pedestrians hit on Toronto streets since June 1
New statistics show vulnerable road users struck at a rate of one every two and a half hours.
By
Ben SpurrTransportation Reporter
Fri., Sept. 23, 2016
It’s been a bad summer for pedestrians and cyclists in Toronto.
According to statistics from the Toronto police, 542 pedestrians and 541 bikers have been hit by cars since June 1. The 1,083 collisions works out to 9.5 crashes every day, or one every 2.5 hours, and represents an increase over last year, when there were 999 cyclist and pedestrian collisions over the same period.
The stats were posted online Thursday by Kyle Miller, an urban planner who has been tracking pedestrian and cyclist collisions through the Toronto police Twitter account. But he discovered that the tweets were only the tip of the iceberg when a police officer reached out to him this week and provided the complete stats. It turned out that the police account was only tweeting out about one third of collisions.
Miller said the new numbers show that pedestrian and cyclist collisions are “a serious health issue that we should be doing something about.”
“If we had 10 people mugged a day, or 10 people shot, stabbed (there would be a bigger outcry)” he said. “But violence on the road has been so normalized, it’s not even news anymore.”
Miller knows how it feels to be hit by a car. The 29-year-old regularly cycles to his office downtown, and on Sept. 8 he was sideswiped by driver who he said didn’t signal before turning into his path.
Miller escaped the crash, which occurred on Queen St. W. in front of city hall, with only bruises to his elbow and forearm. But he said that many others aren’t so lucky.
“Some people have their lives permanently changed or affected by the collisions they’re involved with,” Miller said.
“We never hear about these, so I’m trying to give a voice to these people.”
According to police, 11 pedestrians and one cyclist were killed in the 1,083 collisions since June 1. Last year, 39 pedestrians and four cyclists died in crashes.
Const. Clint Stibbe, who gave the statistics to Miller, said that the police don’t tweet out all collisions, but major crashes, particularly if they affect public safety or traffic, are posted. He urged road users to “take a larger role in their safety, which includes following the rules that are currently in place.”
“When a driver makes a decision on their own and assesses the amount of risk they are facing and decides to take that risk, and the drivers’ action results in the injury or death of a pedestrian or a cyclist, (that) cannot be accepted as the norm,” Stibbe said. “Drivers can do better, they must do better.”
How to protect vulnerable road users became a hot topic at city hall in June, when the city put forward a
new road safety plan.
The original version of the plan set a target of reducing serious collisions by 20 per cent over 10 years, a goal that was panned by pedestrian and cycling advocates who argued that one fatality was too many. Under public pressure, the plan was revised to set a target of eliminating serious collisions altogether, and in July council voted to
increase the plan’s budget from $68.1 million to $80.3 million over five years.
Public Works Chair Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25, Don Valley West) said she has been meeting with city staff over the summer in order to work on the swift implementation of the plan, which includes the creation of “pedestrian safety corridors” in areas that have seen a high volume of serious collisions.
The city is in the process of appointing a new general manager of transportation, and Robinson, who is participating in the hiring process, said she wanted to ensure whoever gets the job is committed to implementing the safety plan “absolutely as aggressively as possible.” She called this summer’s collisions statistics “alarming” and “almost unbelievable.”
“Clearly with these kind of stats we need to move on this issue,” she said.
