Today is World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. The Toronto event has moved around to highlight deficiencies in road traffic design in different neighbourhoods. This year’s event was in Scarborough, starting at Victoria Park subway station.
While riding there, I encountered these fine gentlemen on their hipster fixed gears.
Crossing the viaduct.
The Danforth bike lane was mostly in good shape, with the protected sections having been plowed, and the usual unplowed sections around bus stops.
However, things went south east of Dawes where the cycle tracks were a rough frozen mess, and we took the road the rest of the way to Vic Park. Thanks to Michael and David for slowing enough so that I could keep up.
Here we start to gather at Vic Park, and posters of victims were being handed out.
We remember Brian Woods.
We remember Joshua Okoeguale.
Our fearless leader Jess Spieker gets us organized, and tells us what this event is about. There are apparently 60 such gatherings today across North America so we are in good company.
She introduced MPP Doly Begum who has reintroduced the “Moving Ontario Safely Act” AKA vulnerable road user legislation. MPP Begum tells us about how her father was hit by a speeding driver and thus suffered life altering injuries.
She says that she is only asking for justice on behalf of the family and friends of all victims of road violence.
Now we head south towards Danforth.
At Victoria Park and Danforth, Jess asks the crowd how many collisions have occurred at this intersection over the past eight years. Various numbers are shouted out, but we are all shocked to hear that the real number was more than 1400.
She also points out that this is the boundary between two wards, with some bike infra (i.e. the bike lanes on Danforth) west of here, and absolutely nothing to the east (Crawford’s ward).
A little further east we pause across the street from Access Point where Marvin Macaraig runs Scarborough Cycles. He reiterates that it is frustrating that the only bike infra in the area is cut off east of Victoria Park, just a few blocks away.
A much better picture of the same stop courtesy of CycleTO, where you can actually Marvin just behind Jess (and me behind him taking the above picture).
Another pause where Jess tells us about some more collisions, and also points out a refugee island in the middle of the road that does nothing to slow cars, and is not connected to either side by a crosswalk.
Another stop, some more statistics about collisions at this intersection, and it is pointed out that these bollards are place to protect only property, not people.
Another stop. Why are there no crosswalks wherever there are TTC stops?
We remember Alex Amaro.
Kevin Rupasinghe tells us about he heard concerns about road safety while canvassing during his campaign for city council.
Next, the spot where Danforth makes a sweeping turn to the north. This is an especially dangerous intersection for pedestrians.
Finally a longer trek towards Birchmount. Kevin points out that there are no street lights on the south side, and when the sidewalk is not cleared, there are people walking on the roadway on that side in the dark.
Our final intersection at Birchmount. This is where 17 year old Nadia Mozumber was killed last year. The response from the city was a comment that drivers had to be more careful. Nothing about the road design that was only directed towards the flow of high speed traffic.
On the median, a note from the family.
Jess reads out a long list of victims of road violence. I know far too many of these names from ghost bike rides in past years.
Thanks to everyone who joined us on a cold, windy evening. Special thanks to the family members who also attended.
Thanks to Jess for her organization, her scouting of the route, and the gathering of statistics. Thanks also to Kevin and Marvin, and MPP Doly Begum for speaking. Thanks also to Cycle Toronto for their support of Friends and Families for Safe Streets.
Here are a few of the cyclists just starting their rides home. Hope everyone made it home safely.
Update: CTV news coverage (note that the photo is from the 2019 walk in North York)
A correction from Jess: 1450 is the number for the whole 2km stretch we walked (and those 1450 crashes caused 225 injuries and 2 fatalities). For just Vic Park, the intersection had 617 crashes since 2014, causing 61 injuries.
Still, 617 is a very high number for one intersection.
Biking in a Big City 
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