After another deadly year on Toronto streets, Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory say efforts by police — some new and some restarted — should reduce the pedestrian death toll in 2020.
But a longtime safety advocate says Toronto remains too slow to act on solutions identified years ago, and the number of grieving families — 38 so far this year — will likely rise.
In a year-end news conference, Saunders said changes — including resurrection of a team dedicated to traffic enforcement, new shift schedules allowing more “proactive policing” and community officers identifying safety hazards in communities — should all help reduce pedestrian deaths.
But the chief continues to have the greatest faith in red-light cameras, set to double in number in 2020, and photo radar, set to start issuing tickets in 50 school and community safety zones after the end of a provincially mandated 90-day period where drivers are warned the devices are coming.
Saunders also wants increased education for drivers, pedestrians and other road users. Safety advocates note pedestrians pay the biggest price but Saunders told reporters “everyone has a responsibility when it comes to traffic safety, absolutely everybody.”
“When that comes into play, all of those factors, you’ll see a significant difference in what’s going to happen” with pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, Saunders said.
“People in enforcement are not going to be the cure for this. It’s utilizing the technology, it’s education and awareness from all factors of people being in a big city, whether they live, work or play here, I think will help drive and promote better opportunities to create better numbers and loss of life.”
Saunders spent the last part of 2019 on the defensive after a report from his service revealed that the number of traffic tickets issued in recent years has plunged while collisions rose dramatically.
A U of T epidemiologist who analyzed data for the newspaper concluded that dozens of pedestrian deaths since 2013, and potentially many more, are associated with the traffic enforcement reduction.
In a year-end interview Tory, who has sat on the police services board since he became mayor in 2014, told the newspaper the surge in deaths in recent years — 39 this year including a cyclist, after 46 last year — is “a source of grave, continuing concern,” for him.
Asked about the impact of reduced traffic enforcement, which happened over years when the number of police officers dropped, Tory noted new technology had allowed officers to issue drivers cautions and record them, which might have reduced tickets being issued.
“Human beings are human beings — if they think they’re less likely to get caught, they’re more likely to do something that they shouldn’t be doing,” he said of the policing change.
“And I’m prepared to accept that there was a this was a contributing factor, and I feel badly about that. And now, the bottom line, I think that people look at is, have you taken steps to fix it? And I think the answer is yes.”
Photo radar in particular should help slow drivers down, Tory said, noting other measures the city is taking under a rebooted “Vision Zero” plan, including reduced speed limits across the city and road design changes aimed at slowing traffic.
Tory said he has faith in Saunders to tackle the problem. “He definitely recognizes this as a priority of ours.”
Toronto’s most recent road victims include a 78-year-old man struck crossing Lawrence Ave. E. in Scarborough, a 24-year-old man hit in a crosswalk near Lawrence Ave. W. and Keele St., and an 83-year-old woman hit crossing St. Clair Ave. W. at Castleton Ave.
Patrick Brown, a lawyer and safety advocate who helped trigger a 2011 review of pedestrian deaths by the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario, says many decision-makers still see the city through a car-culture lens and are too slow to embrace long-known techniques to reduce deaths.
“There is still a large portion of the population that want to move quickly in cars. They don’t want to be slowed down in any way, they lack patience,” and politicians want to placate them, he said. Meanwhile, Toronto’s population of pedestrians and cyclists is swelling.
The death toll “is going to get worse based on the progress,” Toronto and other cities have made to date, Brown said. “The gravity of the situation is severe — we’re talking fatalities and horrible things happening to people (left) with lifelong disabilities.”
Brown believes “any fair review” would say very little progress has been made despite past studies. “The knowledge has been there for some time, at least the last 20 years. It’s a shame.”
The introduction to the 2011 review report states, “Ontarians want to walk and cycle and they want to be safe doing it. A road safety paradigm shift is necessary. High quality engineered design, universal accessibility and a dedication to safety where pedestrians are of paramount importance will together decrease pedestrian deaths.”
Recommendations included municipalities: adopting a “complete streets” road design that maximizes pedestrian and cyclist safety including crosswalks, bike lanes and car-slowing “bump outs”; considering 30 km-h speed limits on all residential streets; and conducting annual forensic reviews of all pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
Two years before Toronto police traffic enforcement started to drop in 2013, the coroner and a panel of experts advised: “Police Services in Ontario should develop strong traffic law enforcement programs.”
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