A serious injury to a cyclist and an alarming viral video over the weekend have prompted many Torontonians to demand more action, including renewed calls for Lake Shore West to be closed to motorists, at least on summer weekends. summer.
ActiveTO has been a huge success over the past two summers as the city grapples with shutdowns and has made unprecedented changes to encourage residents to walk and bike outside.
Lake Shore West was one of the beneficiaries, as lanes were closed between Jameson Avenue and Stadium Road for most of the summer.
The result? Cyclists and pedestrians turned out in large numbers to enjoy the riverside course in complete safety.
The temporary initiative was widely seen as a success despite complaints from motorists about unbearable traffic jams and inconvenient detours.
This year? No ActiveTO road closures have been announced so far and if it does return many expect it to be in a much smaller scope.
This weekend’s incident showed that even with dedicated cycle lanes, cyclists in the city are still not safe from motorists when things go wrong.
In the incident this weekend, Toronto police say the ‘life-changing injuries’ occurred when a driver lost control of his vehicle, ‘left the road and hit a cyclist”.
Passed there about 30 minutes after the accident. The vehicle had left the road, crossed the cycle path and traveled about 50 m on the grass, stopping before the house of the Argonaut club.
— John V oss (@jwvoss) May 14, 2022
Many reports in Toronto have gone wild, suggesting injuries like this among cyclists could be prevented if only the City had the will to act.
again, a sad lack of civic leadership. always think small.
— Andrew Larsen (@larsenesque) May 14, 2022
Many are calling for ActiveTO to return this spring and summer.
not staying active at least on the shores of the lake where it was so heavily used is actually puzzling
— betty bohemian (@mushrooomomma) May 14, 2022
This is not the first major incident involving a cyclist and a motorist in recent days.
Dashcam video on Thursday captured an incident near High Park where a motorist used his vehicle to intimidate a cyclist and nearly run him off the road before a verbal altercation ensued.
Thursday at #HighPark a motorist used his vehicle to assault and intimidate a cyclist. These common incidents lay bare the fallacy of the cycling threat. High Park should be closed to motor vehicles @gordperks. Convict/charge dangerous drivers @TorontoPolice not cyclists traveling at 24km/h pic.twitter.com/1D8usyhYW6
— The Biking Lawyer (Dave Shellnutt) (@TheBikingLawyer) May 14, 2022
People are now calling on the Toronto police to investigate.
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