Today was World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. As per the tradition for the past several years, Friends and Families for Safe Streets organized a memorial gathering and candlelight walk. This year, they decided to walk along Avenue Rd to highlight some of the hazards along this stretch. The meeting point was Ramsden Park.
It was nice to see many of the usual suspects in person. Sorry guys but I should have taken more than one shot here. That’s Patrick Brown of Bike Law Canada to the right, along with photographer Nick and stalwart supporter Michael in the centre.
It being a rainy day, Cleverhoods were well represented.
That’s MPP Jessica Bell in the centre who will be presenting VRU Legislation to the Ontario Parliament on Wednesday. I asked if she had an umbrella. She said no, but that she was dressed warm enough.
Jess Spieker gets things rolling and let’s us know the evening’s program.
We are told about a new program to collect data on unreported collisions with cars.
Albert Koehl, who wears many hats, is representing the Avenue Road Safety Coalition tonight.
And we’re off, walking towards Avenue Road.
First stop was a bit north to Roxborough, but we were told to observe how narrow the sidewalk was along this stretch.
At Roxborough, we are told about a high speed crash where a driver went up onto a sidewalk and pinned a pedestrian against the wall of this church.
Now headed back south. Jess leads the way with PA system in tow.
At the intersection with Davenport, we are told about Adam Excell, whose ghost bike is on an adjacent corner. This was a hit and run.
A little further down, we are shown the irony of a Ferrari dealer adjacent to a retirement home.
There was another incident where a speeding motorist mounted the sidewalk and then hit a gas line, forcing the evacuation of the retirement home.
What did the city do? Instead of traffic calming, they installed bollards around the gas manifold. It is ironic that this gas manifold now has better protection than the pedestrians and cyclists along this stretch.
We pause at Lowther to consider fatalities that have occurred when people cross between designated crosswalks. Crosswalks are far apart along this stretch, but you are taking your life into your own hands by crossing at other intersections, since Avenue Rd is six lanes wide.
Even crosswalks are not a guarantee of protection. A senior was killed at this crosswalk at Yorkville Rd, even though she was crossing with a green light.
Passing the MJ Escanan ghost bike.
We are told about the tragedy of MJ Escanan who was struck down literally meters from an intersection where there are protected bike lanes in the other three directions. We are also reminded of the fact that this intersection was where Darcy Allan Sheppard was murdered by the former attorney general of Ontario.
Finally the event wraps up just around the corner.
Jess reads out an entirely too long list of victims of road violence. So many of the names corresponding to ghost bike rides of the past.
Thanks to everyone who came out on a rainy Sunday evening. Also thanks to Jess Spieker, Friends and Families for Safe Streets, and the Avenue Road Safely Coalition.
Deepest condolences to families and friends of those who are no longer with us.
Thank you to organizers and everyone there, including Jun, as it was a larger group, and numbers will make a difference for the changes that are overdue. In the case of bike safety, Ave. Rd. was looked at in the 1992 report for N/South bike lanes as was Yonge, and we got the inferior Poplar Plains/Russell Hill route instead, though in some ways it’s OK to not bad.
But it’s not always the City kowtowing to the votorists, nor the province, but also the federal level. The truck sideguards and design changes could be changed, and also in terms of the terrorism of traffic, why are such excessively fast cars not seen as dangerous products and restricted? (We also need to have more refiniement of what is an e-bike and not needing restrictions/insurance, and the feds need to be way smarter on what they give $$$$$ to eg. dumb transit. And did they defend democracy in Toronto or let the Dougtator ‘win” at our expense? The status of cities, and respect for planning/order not ‘Doug’sorder’ is vital.)
There was barely enough room for the “wider sidewalks” sign… perhaps this was planned?
there were places where the sidewalk was effectively even narrower due to poles, etc, but I was happy I got that particular shot.