We Love the City

The monologue is my preferred method of discourse.

Sidewalk Cyclists are the new Swine Flu


Last week, a cyclist hit a pedestrian on a sidewalk in Scabrough, and the pedestrian died. It’s an incredibly stupid accident, and tragic that someone died, but is also the first incident of its kind to happen in some time, as far as I’m aware.

That hasn’t stopped the Sun’s Joe Warmington from getting hysterical about it.

A bit of background, in case you aren’t familiar with Toronto: Riding a bicycle on the sidewalk is banned by municipal by-law. Unless, that is, your wheels are a certain size – a fairly sensible exemption to allow children to learn to ride on a sidewalk. Of course, it doesn’t specify anything about children, so it’s all about wheel size. In this case, a 15-year-old was riding a bike with wheels the appropriate size for a sidewalk, so no crime has been committed. Right?

This, understandably, gets Warmington’s goat. But it’s fair to note that no charges have been laid yet. It’s been less than a week since the accident took place – it’s not unusual for it to take much longer to sort out what charges should be applied.

Warmington, of course, has a solution:

Had that bike had a licensed adult on the pedals, perhaps dangerous driving charges could have been laid or even criminal negligence causing death.

Warmington doesn’t seem to understand that a license has very little to do with whether charges can be laid. Criminal Negligence, for example, has nothing to do with licenses, cars, or bicycles:

219. (1) Every one is criminally negligent who
(a) in doing anything, or
(b) in omitting to do anything that it is his duty to do,
shows wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons.

Speeding down a sidewalk on a bicycle and not taking more precautions to avoid hitting a pedestrian could certainly qualify.

Then again, the police don’t seem very keen on the whole “negligence” thing. Last year, a cyclist in Toronto was killed when a driver opened her door into his path. The charge? “Open Vehicle Door Improperly.” The punishment? $110.

When the question of a negligence charge was raised, a toronto police officer commented, “If she didn’t look, would that be negligence? It’s very hard to label that as negligent.”

In fact, no, it wouldn’t be hard to label that as negligence, since the Highway Traffic Act specifically states:

165. No person shall,
(a) open the door of a motor vehicle on a highway without first taking due precautions to ensure that his or her act will not interfere with the movement of or endanger any other person or vehicle;

Which sounds like a pretty clear case of “omitting to do anything that it is his duty to do”.

So rest assured, Joe: This has very little to do with licenses or wheel size. The Toronto Police just don’t seem interested in anything requiring creativity.

Of coure, it really could be just a simple, stupid, tragic accident. No one knows how fast the cyclist was going, or what steps he or the pedestrian took to avoid the collision. If the woman had collided with a jogger, or tripped over a 4-year-old’s tricycle, the same thing could have happened, though likely without quite this level hysteria.

He then goes on to demand an emergency city council meeting to deal with this epidemic of rampant hooliganism, and urges a coroner’s inquest. He’s dreaming on the first count, but is in luck on the second: There already was a coroner’s inquest into fatal cycling accidents! It happened more than ten years ago, and made many excellent recommendations.
Now, lest you worry that it’s a cyclist-coddling report, there are things like this:

That the Toronto Police Service, in partnership with the municipal Cycling Committee, expand targeted enforcement and education efforts towards specific behaviours (cyclists and drivers) which cause collisions, and use the media to raise awareness of these behaviours.

(emphasis mine)

I probably shouldn’t have to, but I feel I should re-state it anyway: This whole thing is a tragic mess, and the accident really shouldn’t have happened. But blowing it entirely out of proportion – and yes, I know it’s the Sun, I know it’s what they do – is simply bizarre. In 2005 (the last year for which I can find data), there were 684 fatal automobile collisions in Ontario, accounting for 766 deaths. Perhaps people could find better things to get hysterical about.