Action Alert: Bill 54: Protection of Vulnerable Road Users

by Ingrid Buday

Did you know that as soon as you leave the protection of a vehicle you are a vulnerable road user (VRU)? When you close your car door and are on the road or sidewalk, you have increased risk. I think we can all relate to a driver that turned right on a street and just missed you. Or you were riding your bike and that driver who was turning left stopped at the last moment. As a person who chooses to use a bike for most of my travels, I have felt that vulnerability in every cell of my body. 

What you may not know is if there is impact from that vehicle and you are seriously or fatally injured, the penalties for inflicting those harms are small. An example is a wife and mother of three who was standing on a sidewalk, a driver ended up going up on the sidewalk with their vehicle, hitting and killing her. The penalty? A fine of $1,000 and 6 month driving restriction. The drivers are not required to go to court and hear about the consequences of their actions or participate in any driver re-education and are allowed to continue to drive. 

This proposed law will increase penalties and clarify other requirements before that driver is able to drive again. This bill is not against drivers, (though is meant to deter bad behaviour) it is about our laws providing justice to the people and families who have been impacted. We are all VRUs and this law will help to create equity on our streets which will then help us transition to feeling safer on our roads and choosing to walk or bike instead of driving a car.

Please visit this website for more information: Justice for People Hurt on Ontario Roads and to send an email to your MPP. They will vote on this bill, possibly making it a law in the coming weeks. Time is short to make a difference. 

Every voice counts, your voice counts. If this becomes law, it provides benefits to every person who lives in Ontario. Thanks for making a difference.

Active Transportation

by Ingrid Buday

November and December have been busy months for Active Transportation!

In November, Etobicoke Climate Action participated in the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Roads have prioritized vehicles since the 1912s when Kansas City passed the first ordinance requiring people to cross streets at crosswalks, the birth of “jay walking”. Here is an interesting article from the BBC regarding the evolution of how we view our roads today.

Since then millions of people have been seriously injured or killed on our roads; and on November 21st we walked down Avenue Road from Dupont to Bloor, honouring those who suffered at the hands of drivers and lack of political will to make our streets safer. You can see more here: Biking in a Big City

In addition, a study was conducted on the Killed or Seriously Injured Data from the Toronto Police Services Open Data Portal (see documentation here) where if an injured person had to be admitted to hospital, even if only for observation at the time of the collision, should be included in the data set. As it turns out, the dataset is incomplete. This dataset is now being completed through crowdsourced methodology where people can check the data on a map, determine if their crash is included, and if not add it to an auxiliary dataset. You can check that out here: Road Traffic Victims Count

To make our streets safer and hold drivers accountable, Jessica Bell, Bhutila Karpoche and Doly Begum brought forward the Vulnerable Road Users Law (Bill 54) and it passed its second reading. A video highlighting the proposed Act can be found here on Twitter. There is lots of work to be done; next it goes to committee, then a third reading, then royal assent. Etobicoke Climate Action supports this measure to make drivers accountable for the actions they take when it involves harm to people and their loved ones.

December’s highlight was the Council Meeting on December 15th where 2020 ActiveTO bike lanes were made permanent and a plan for 100 km of new bikeways in three years was approved. This includes extending the Bloor bike lanes to Six Points by 2024. Even with this new plan approved, each bike lane proposed in the plan will be subject to public consultation and will return to City Council for final approval. We will need to stay active and participate in consultations as they come up. For bike info and petitions you can read more at Two Wheeled Politics.

The downside is that both Etobicoke North’s Councillor Michael Ford and Etobicoke Centre’s Councillor Stephen Holyday voted against it. We have some serious work to do in the upcoming elections to make Etobicoke a safe place for everyone on our roads!

Etobicoke Climate Action will now have two Neighbourhood Climate Action Champions! Brian MacLean will be joined by Ingrid Buday in the upcoming cohort of the City of Toronto’s initiative for local leaders to engage community residents on environmental issues and inspire climate action. More to come on this as well.

Lastly, if you think that you need a car for hauling stuff around, check out this page that showcases different cargo bikes and what you can do with them! Bromptoning

Just remember:

Green Transportation Working Group Report

Ingrid and Alex continue to move this group forward. We are working to further clarify our mission statement and define clearly our objectives and deliverables. That document remains a draft and is in a state of flux. We have broad agreement on our mission which can be summarized as follows.

The ECA Green Transportation WG’s objective is to work with the community to assure that green transportation can be used to meet the needs of the citizens of Etobicoke.

1. Transportation Safety – The ability for all green transportation options to  be accessed safely and equitably.
2. Public transit – zero emission fleet, ensuring that public transit is a realistic solution for all residents.
3. Walking and Rolling – Making sure that our streets and neighbourhoods encourage people to use walking, cycling, skateboards, scooters, etc. as a key part of their transportation. 
4. Zero Emission Vehicles – We need to define strategies to incentivize manufactures, purchasers, and infrastructure providers to expedite the rollout of ZEVs.
5. Scalability – We need to assure that research and manufacturing capabilities are scaled up.

Specific objectives and deliverables are being defined. Key efforts include communication and data gathering. Stay tuned.