Shouldn't Toronto public space be used by ALL Torontonians?
Yesterday, a friend of mine was yelled at, belittled, and endangered by a driver for making a proper left turn at Dundas & River. Despite being an experienced cyclist who is on the Toronto Cycling Committee, she was almost too distraught afterwards to continue her journey to work.
She wrote the mayor and city councillors and begged for their action. Torontonians should be considered equal on our streets, whether they're in a car, on a bike, on rollerblades, or walking. All of our property taxes, sales taxes and income tax go to their creation and upkeep... there's no need to subsidize drivers. (In case you are wondering, the majority of the gas tax goes towards limited access highways - which are mainly used by drivers).
I have her permission to re-print her letter here (below), and encourage you to contact the mayor and all Toronto city councillors about the inequality and disrespect that exists on our fair avenues (that email link contains all of their email addresses). As Darren has mentioned today, one letter to a politician is worth a lot!
Good afternoon Mayor Miller and Toronto City Councillors,
I feel implored to report that a mis-educated driver tried to run me off the road at Dundas and River this morning because he didn't like the idea of a bicycle making a left-hand turn from the left-hand turn lane (even though I was going the speed of traffic and made the appropriate hand signal with plenty of time and space for all). "Why don't you decide if you're a car or a bike, you stupid fucking twat!" he spewed from his passenger side window after screeching into the bike lane and forcing me to the curb.
"So killing me is going to help the situation?" I weakly called back, though I don't suppose he heard over the revs of his pick-up as he sped off, spinning gravel and dust up into my face. He proceeded to make an un-signaled right turn onto Shuter (again cutting carelessly across the bike lane) while I tried to regain composure and carry on my way. By Parliament, I was forced to stop, as tears welled up. I ended up making myself 20 minutes late for work so as to have a proper cry, before unsteadily carrying on.
How many times do I have to face this kind of belligerent persecution, I wonder, on the very streets that my tax dollars helped to pave; where my tax dollars are paying for maintenance and patrol? With the average price of gas in Canada at over $1/liter today, there is no question that urban centers, especially the easily bikable Toronto, are going to be forced to accommodate more and more cyclists on their streets. I want to know what's being done to accommodate this shift, insofar as driver, cyclist and pedestrian education? I also want to know why we have not yet implemented signage indicating that bicycles have every right to be on the road (similar to those being hailed as a success in Victoria)?
As a member of the Toronto Cycling Committee, I am well aware of Toronto's Bikeway Network and I commend the City for taking steps to get the Plan back on track, but am deeply concerned that there seems to be a distinct lack of leadership here, or any kind of larger, active transport vision. The more cycling lanes and routes created, and the more expensive gas becomes, the more viable the bicycle becomes as a commuter option, resulting in an increased volume of cyclists (already reflected by exponential growth in Bike Week participants each year) not only on path and laneways, but also on the inter-connecting, unmarked streets. While this is wonderful news for our car-dependant and smog-laden city, it presents a great challenge to City Staff, who are faced with the grizzly task of informing Toronto's automobile drivers that they're going to have to learn to share the road, as the law demands.
The time is well overdue. My encounter this morning, although a little extreme, was not an isolated incident. I see and/or experience cyclist-targeted road-rage on a daily basis! As a proud Torontonian, I can't think of any other area of my life that I am expected to continually endure such systemic bigotry; it shames and saddens me to have to ride to work in tears due to misguided and ignorant abuse. Do we really want to continue to propagate this culture of angry road-hogs like the one who intimidated me this morning, or do we want to put an end to this kind of divisive behavior through the use of public awareness campaigns and pressure on the Province to incorporate cyclist and pedestrian encounters into the driver education program?
Having to repeatedly endure verbal slurs, one finger salutes, frightening and mis-timed horn-honks, not to mention having been struck by automobiles on three separate occasions now, I know better than to fight back on the streets; there's really not much a 20 pound bike can do when facing a 2000 pound automobile! So I turn to you, as Toronto's elected representatives, to ensure implementation and maintenance of a roadway system that is as safe for me, as it is equally safe for all Torontonians (not just those already shielded by two-tonnes of steel). Signage, education and a widespread public awareness campaign on shared road usage is well overdue, as is demanding that the Province revamp the driver education program to incorporate the current high-growth movement toward active transportation.
I thank you, in advance, for your concern and for your swift action on this matter.
Kind regards,
Margaret Hastings-James
Discuss this topic and a lot more on the BikingToronto Forum
