A cyclist was killed this past Monday by a streetcar on Queen St. East. This was one of three recent, serious collisions involving streetcars and vulnerable road user, and has prompted an investigation by the TTC. This was the sixth cyclist death this year for the city of Toronto.
Today was his memorial ride. It started at Bloor and Spadina as per usual, and went along Bloor, down Sherbourne then east on Queen to the crash site.
Joey gets us organized.
Lining up and preparing to leave.
Along Bloor.
Down Sherbourne.
Doug and Honey are faithful attendees.
At the crash site.
Geoffrey with the ghost bike.
A moment of silence.
A few decorations for the bike. A name plate will be added in due course.
According to police accounts, Clint (age 61) was riding eastbound, lost control of his bike and hit a parked car, and then fell into the path of a streetcar. You can see how little room there is between the parked cars and the tracks.
Clint was remembered by friends in this news clip
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1509437
May he rest in peace.
Update: CTV news clip
Just watching the memorial cyclists riding between the trolley tracks gave me the shivers!
Yes, those tracks! Such a long-standing set of hazards, and no real interest to do anything about them, and there is a lot of disrepair on the near-curb parts where cyclists often have to ride.
It’s not clear what exactly made Clint fall; i was a bit suspicious about the road conditions, and there was something a bit on the broken side ahead of where he was killed, but it’s not as fractured as often is the case, so ???
The City/TTC doesn’t want to acknowledge these tracks as hazards, but they are. And could inserts help? Signage? Putting orange paint like an escalator edge all along them? Clearing off the parked cars to make a long King or Queen bike lane? How about real parking enforcement to make sure the cars park tightly to the curb as possible, and signage on the ticket machines too. And possibly, one option that might be helpful that I try to do, is to ‘hop’ the front wheel by pulling up on handlebars to at least get the front wheel over whatever. But absolutely a set of issues, and sad, and why did Daryl Craig fall on College St. near Ossington last Dec. 21 and be killed by a truck? No charges….
Thanks Jun, thanks ARC, thanks riders…Safe…