Homeless & Mentally Ill Persons Are Road Safety Problems
The creation of homeless persons is a societal decision not a choice that homeless persons make of their own free will. Governments in Canada have continually reduced social services to the lower classes resulting in many persons being unable to be housed. When the Ontario provincial government also decided to close mental hospitals this sent many mentally ill persons onto its streets – to fend for themselves. In the Province of Ontario it was the Conservative government of Mike Harris that convinced the voting public in the 1990s it was “common sense” to create these disadvantaged persons. The “Common Sense Revolution” was the Harris platform and most voters swallowed it because it would cost the province less money. Harris also dumped many Provincial costs onto the backs of municipal governments who had no choice but to transfer those costs onto ordinary property owners. With the increase in the population of the poor, the homeless and the unsupported mentally ill the popular sentiment is the blame those underclasses for the destruction visible in local neighborhoods.
Road safety is not immune to these societal trends. While safer vehicles are built and roadways include modern design, these creations are reliant on persons using them in the intended manner. Designers have difficulty understanding that their enhancements are of little use when persons are incapable of using them properly.
As many persons fall to being uneducated they also fail to understand the benefits of a modern transportation system. At times persons may fall to drug addiction making it very difficult to protect them when roaming urban roadways. And the same applies to those with mental illnesses.
The choice that Canadians have made is to model our cities and society around that of the United States. In the past 100 years the U.S. has continued to ignore the presence of uncounted poor and homeless persons living on their urban streets. That ignorance has been difficult to ignore as vast portions of large cities in the U.S. contain “war zones” within their city centres and outskirts. Over the years similar “progress” has taken place in Canadian cities. Many mentally ill persons cannot function in urban traffic and neither can those addicted to various drugs. By providing a minimum support that houses these persons many road safety problems can be reduced. The cost of hospitalization of an injured person is high and society must pay that price. And when a person becomes permanently disabled through injury society must pay a high price, over many years, to maintain that disabled person. Injury prevention by supporting the homeless, addicted and mentally may appear to be expensive in the minds of many, yet it is an overall benefit to society.
Review of Video Frames from Oxford & McNay Collision In London Ontario
Those not accustomed to analysing the results of serious collisions were impressed with watching the video from a surveillance camera showing a collision that occurred at the intersection of Oxford Street and McNay Street in London, Ontario that occurred on the morning of March 24, 2025. Such videos are commonplace now as more roadways are covered by various video installations. The unusual aspect of this collision is that the offending driver was approaching a T-intersection at high speed and the traffic signal for his direction of travel was red. Even if the collision had not occurred the offending vehicle would have travelled through a chain-link fence and onto the grounds of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic School located on the south side of the intersection.
The four frames below were pulled from the video of a surveillance camera showing how the vehicles came together at impact.
This was a relatively severe collision as evidenced by the crush to the front end of the offending southbound pick-up truck and similar crush to the driver’s side of the other, eastbound pick-up.
At this early point-in-time no mention has been made why the southbound pick-up truck was travelling at high speed toward an intersection where his roadway came to an end. One viewer commented that the driver was known to travel at high speeds in the neighbourhood but it does not explain why the speeding would occur at a point where there was no where to go.
Modern motor vehicles are equipped with event data recorders, cameras and a variety of other on-board modules which can provide detailed information about how a collision occurred. Even so, defects in the complex “computerizations” of vehicular electronics can be hidden. As much as more details are available there are also more complex systems which can hide other details.
The view of many is that police should be allowed the time to complete an investigation before providing any further comment. But that is not the case. In almost every collision that occurs in the vicinity police never reveal the details of what occurred and why it occurred. This is particularly important when innocent citizens are involved, some of whom are injured or killed, with any closure to family and friends.
Gorski Consulting Sets Up Account On Bluesky
Elon Musk’s X (Twitter) may be the only bully on the block but there are alternatives to those who want to communicate in a world with some sanity. As a protest against the Musk/Trump insanity Gorski Consulting has opened a new account with Bluesky. There may also be other alternatives out there but for now the sky is blue. So come and join us at Bluesky (we have no relationship with them) as we will be posting there while we consider our options of exiting X altogether.
Why Will Vehicle Event Data Recorders (“Black Boxes”) Be Required to Record More Detailed Data by September, 2027?
Seemingly, the “detailed” data now being collected whenever a motor vehicle crash takes place is enough to provide many experts, and the courts, with an acceptable understanding of how a collision occurred. Yet the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has completed a new ruling, effective January 17, 2025, that will require motor vehicle manufacturers to record data at a much higher detail and over a much longer time. The present requirement is to record at 2 samples every second over a time of 5 seconds. The new requirement will be to record at 10 samples every second over a time of 20 seconds. This requirement must be enabled by most motor vehicle manufacturers by September 1, 2027. Is this additional detail necessary? The average citizen has no idea.
In NHTSA’s discussion of the Final Ruling, they summarized the need as follows:
“The increased sample rate required by this final rule will provide crash investigators a better understanding of the sequence of pre-crash actions, and the increased recording duration will provide more details on actions taken prior to crashes. Specifically, with the implementation of this final rule’s increased recording duration, actions such as running a stop sign or red light could be captured in full and included in crash reconstruction when supplemented with roadway and traffic control information. The increased recorded duration could also help capture any corrective maneuvers taken by a vehicle prior to an initial road departure. The increased data recording frequency required by this final rule will help clarify the interpretation of recorded pre-crash information, including braking and steering actions taken by a vehicle. It will also help reduce potential uncertainty related to the relative timing of recorded data elements, and assist with the identification of potential pedal misapplication.”
In another section of NHTSA’s report they discussed the content of an earlier Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). In the NPRM the following comment was given:
“In support of the proposal, the NPRM explained that in some crash circumstances ( e.g., brake application and release or rapid reversals in steering input of less than 0.5 seconds), 2 Hz may be insufficient to identify crash causation factors, as it is possible for an EDR recording at 2 Hz to miss rapid vehicle control inputs. Thus, although more crash causation information would be captured with the proposed 20 second time duration, this data could be misinterpreted without a refinement and increase in the EDR sampling acquisition frequency.”
So NHTSA is stating that there is a problem.
The requirement for additional detail and duration of recording comes with a cost. NHTSA argues that the cost is not that large as most current hardware is able to meet that requirement without much re-design.
It is worthwhile noting that NHTSA’s requirements as to what manufacturers must record were originally created in 2006, or almost 20 years ago. NHTSA’s position was that, these requirements must exist only if manufacturers chose to install an event data recorder (EDR). In other words manufacturers could refuse to install an EDR as their option, but if an EDR exists it must record a list of 15 required parameters. To this day manufacturers still have the option of not installing an EDR in their vehicles.
Trump Tariff Turmoil – An Impetus For Canadian Cycling?
Threatened import tariffs by a deranged U.S. president have many Canadians believing its southern neighbour is the new “public enemy #1”. The transportation sector is an example where illogical tariffs could create turmoil on both sides of the border as some car manufacturing and parts plants may close and costs of motor vehicles may rise. If there is a silver lining in all this mayhem it is that cycling in Canada may get a boost.
Cycling is a non-technical mode of transportation that does not require expensive or complicated parts shipped across Canada’s border. Many things get done under the radar by the community of cyclists who are often invisible to the public eye. Yes there are the impressive-looking cargo bikes that could be useful in some circumstances. However a lot of work is done on simple bikes with no fancy design.
In remains a fact that small-scale business activities of Canadian society are often overlooked and never fully documented. This is because so much of it remains unofficial. Within the activities of cyclists there are numerous instances where business acts are completed without recognition of their importance. Yet there are a vast number of them.
This article will examine some recent observations of cyclists in London, Ontario taken from a broader study undertaken by Gorski Consulting over many years. The focus will be on the types of cyclists that are observed conducting non-official business activities, from very low-cost activities, to those that require greater expenditures to achieve their work. This will emphasize that cycling for business can be a viable option when dictatorial insanity to the south attempts to disrupt Canadian society. But this cycling activity needs government intervention to make it more organized and efficient. It also needs government involvement to provide public disclosure about how cyclist injuries and deaths are occurring so that corrections can be made and cycling can be a true benefit to Canadian society.
Low-End Cyclist Business Activities
Those at the lower end of the economical scale have developed unique ways to transport cargo and conduct personal business. At the cheapest end of the scale are those who carry cargo without any attachments to a cycle. Some of these instances have been observed on London’s streets recently and are shown below.
These are just a few of the many examples observed around the City of London where unofficial business is being conducted on a cycle without any specific designs or attachments. There are instances where cargo carrying on a cycle involves additional attachments and some observed examples of this are shown below.
Personal Business Cycling With Additional Attachments
Having reviewed some unique cycling combinations there is one which, in our view, is most promising and it has been left for this last discussion. Cycles with mini-trailer attachments at the back of the cycle are the best solution because they can carry substantial cargo, are narrow enough to fit within the confines of typical cycling lanes and they are also the safest combinations of all. The photos below provide some examples of cycles and mini-trailers observed in London.
Cycling Insecurity Due To Theft
While unofficial business activities take place in the City of London, there are hazards that remain and need greater government intervention. One of the greatest problems for cyclists is theft. Whenever a cycle is left in a public, or even private space, it is vulnerable to being stolen. Some examples of observations are shown below.
Cycling has the potential of being a great benefit to Canadian society but headwinds like theft exist that prevent it from being what it could be. This mode of transportation is fragile. It requires public attention and action to expand its benefits.
Discussion
These photos have shown unorthodox ways in which cyclists in London carry cargo to achieve unofficial business. Each rider and their circumstance is unique. Because of these homemade alterations the efficiency of them is mixed while the threat to their safety is real. Mini-trailers attached to the rear of cycles provide the best combination, both in terms of cargo carrying capability but also in terms of cycling safety. Governments could improve these conditions by making mini-trailers more available especially to those a the bottom of the income bracket. Many cyclists use their cycles as an essential mode of transportation because they cannot afford other alternatives and they tend to develop home-made improvisations due to necessity. These improvisations may solve their initial problems but they add to the likelihood that a collision will occur either with motor vehicle traffic or via single-cycle loss-of-control. Yet carrying cargo and conducting business in these inexpensive ways can provide Canadians with independence from foreign agencies that would wish to destabilize the Canadian economy.
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