The Premier of the Province of Ontario, Doug Ford, caused a controversy recently when he announced that he would stop installations of cycling lanes on roads he deemed inappropriate and, even more, he would remove certain existing cycling lanes that were causing traffic congestion. These announcements raised the ire of many cyclists who conducted demonstrations and asked that petitions be signed to oppose Ford’s intensions.
Ford’s announcements are contrary to educated understanding that climate change is a threat to human existence. With the burning of fossil fuels humans are creating an atmosphere that will cause great hardship toward our existence. That understanding is the core reason why our society must change our habits from driving individual, gasoline-powered vehicles to using electric vehicles, mass transit, walking and riding bicycles. Ford demonstrates a cave-man mentality that does not appreciate this basic reality. In fact it is likely that Ford saw an opportunity to gain votes by recognizing that many drivers felt inconvenienced by the reality that they must change. By expanding the wedge between cyclists and motor vehicle drivers he could gain the political support of an important segment of Ontario’s population.
It has been announced that Ford’s government has now introduced legislation that would prevent cyclists or their families from suing the province for the injuries and deaths caused by the removal of bike lanes. This is essentially removing the courts’ ability to conduct an impartial assessment whether the government’s negligence has led to those injuries and deaths.
While Ford’s actions are raising alarms there is a continued lack of information about cyclist injuries and deaths that remains, unexplainably, beneath the public’s radar. No one, not even cyclists or cyclist groups, has raised a concern that no public information is being provided about how and why cyclist injuries and fatalities are occurring.
A webinar authored by Dr. Alison Macpherson in March of 2024 showed a disturbing reality about cyclist injuries in the Toronto area. Her data was gathered from emergency departments (ED) in Toronto between 2016 and 2021. As shown in the graphic below, copied from her presentation, there were 30,101 visits by cyclists to EDs and only 13% of these were related to incidents with motor vehicles. The remainder of 26,083, or 87% were related to “something else”, but no public information exists about what that “something else” is. Hospital personnel and other closed agencies, including the Ontario provincial government could easily obtain those details, and they likely have. But none of that has reached the public.
A further concern shown in the above graphic is that, although there were 30,101 ED visits police reported only 2,362 of those. So less than 8% of those cyclist incidents were captured in police data. Even when police are involved it is simple to see from looking at official new media articles that essentially nothing of informative or educational value is passed on to the public about those incidents.
As case in point is a recent article posted on the CTV Kitchener website entitled “Waterloo reviews most collision-prove areas to improve safety”. Data was presented from a report developed by the City of Waterloo on various areas road safety within their jurisdiction. With respect to cyclist collisions the CTV article quoted Waterloo’s data that, in the past five years, there was a total of 53 cyclist collisions in their jurisdiction. From this data they developed the 10 most collision-prone roadways involving cyclists as noted below.
Top 10 Cyclist Collision Locations
- Phillip Street between University Avenue West and Columbia Street – 2-Lane Road
- Allen Street West at Park Street – All-way Stop Control
- Albert Street at Hazel Street – 4-Legged Signalized
- Bathurst Drive at McMurray Road – 4 Legged Signalized
- Columbia Street at Hazel Street – 4-Legged Signalized
- Albert Street between Columbia Street West and Cardill Crescent – 2-lane Road with On-street cycling lanes
- Columbia Street West at Phillip Street – 4-leg Signalized
- Laurelwood Drive at Old Oak Place – Two-Way Stop Control
- Keats Way at Amos Avenue – Two-Way Stop Control
- Columbia Street West at Beechlawn Drive – Two-Way Stop Control
Since there were only 53 reported cyclist collisions it would be difficult to imagine that reporting them in such fine detail would be useful, or even valid. Given the small number of total observations it is very likely that the Phillip Street location contained a small number of collisions, but the actual number was never revealed in the CTV news article. However, given the Hospital Emergency Department research by Dr. Macpherson (reported above) the Waterloo data likely does not include over 92% of cyclist injury incidents that may have actually occurred. So how useful is such reported data?
Despite this critical lack of data the CTV news article reported that the City of Waterloo had developed conclusions and recommendations from their study:
“Phillip Street between University Avenue West and Columbia Street West was identified as the top location for collisions involving cyclists, due to distracted driving while turning, cyclists on the wrong side of the road and cyclists losing control. Staff recommend additional signage, installing high visibility pavement markings, instituting a 40 km/h speed limit and reviewing the lighting in the area.“
This illustrates how many officials are not addressing the fact that they are developing policy based on insufficient data. They are also confusing the public, and cyclists, about what is important in their transportation safety.
For an unexplainable reason the public, and cyclists specifically, are not recognizing that they do not have the critical data to understand how cyclists are being injured and killed. And they are not making any effort to demand that the data be collected and made publicly available. The impact of the removal of cycling lanes by Ontario’s Ford government cannot be properly assessed while basic and essential data remains a secret revealed only to the Ford administration.
You must be logged in to post a comment.