Platform 2006 Review - PROTECT
13. The City of Toronto should implement all recommendations from the Coroner's report that fall under the City's jurisdiction.
It is not clear if there has been any movement on implementing the coroner’s recommendations, but there certainly has been no significant impact.
14. The City of Toronto should advocate for action on the Coroner's report recommendations that apply to the Federal and Provincial Governments and report annually to the Toronto Cycling Committee on progress made.
It is not clear if there has been any movement on advocating for action by the Federal and Provincial on the coroner’s recommendations, but there certainly has been no significant impact.
15. Start using innovative bicycle and pedestrian pavement markings and signals.
- Where necessary ask the Provincial Government to make the required amendments to the Highway Traffic Act.
- Review locations where innovative designs can be used and start implementing them without delay.
The City has started using sharrows, and plans to install some pilot bike boxes in 2010.
The City has installed cross-bikes on Lakeshore Blvd. from the Martin Goodman Trail without any specific designation from the Province.
The City has installed 2 “pedestrian scramble” intersection signals at Yonge & Dundas and Yonge & Bloor, with 2 more proposed locations at Bay & Dundas and Bay & Bloor.
The City has installed at least 1 “leading pedestrian interval” at University & Adelaide.
16. Improve education and enforcement of all laws/bylaws regarding pedestrian and cyclist safety or convenience, including:
- Vehicular parking in bike lanes;
- By-laws regarding obstruction of sidewalks; and
- Highway traffic act laws; including vehicles respecting crosswalks.
With regard to parking in bike lanes, no changes to by-laws are needed since there is nothing currently prohibiting parking enforcement officers from handing out tickets in all bike lane zones. There could potentially be a new by-law specifically for no stopping in a bike lane, but that is not necessary. Unfortunately, leadership at the top of the Toronto Police Service does not take the issue of cars stopping and parking in bike lanes very seriously.
17. Implement measures to make roads safer and prevent sidewalk cycling.
Temporal analysis of detailed collision statistics with a summary is not publicly available, and so it is difficult to chart progress. At face value, there has been no significant drop in cyclist and pedestrian collisions, injuries and fatalities.
18. Create a Toronto Police Services Bike Theft Task Force to reduce the problem of bike theft.
There does not appear to be a specific bike theft task force at the Toronto Police Service, though the force was successful in finally prosecuting Toronto’s most infamous bike thief and also setting up an on-line bicycle registration system.
