“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Such is the well-known proverb. In London Ontario the combined actions and inactions of many entities with “good intentions” lead to the deaths of many of London’s citizens. The most recent example of a cyclist fatality in east London on April 28, 2025, is just another example of the mentioned proverb.
The only official mention of the fatal cyclist collision occurred in a news segment by the local CTV News agency which provided a short description on its daily evening news. CTV also posted a similar description on its website. It was said that a 49-year-old cyclist was killed. The only useful information from CTV was that 3 photos were made available and only one of those provided a view that was close enough to the collision site that, at least, minimal information could be obtained. The single useful photo showed, what appeared to be, the rest position of a cycle in the westbound curb lane of Dundas Street next to a fire hydrant, west of the Vancouver Street crossroad. However we cannot show that photo here on this website because CTV and the reporter who took the photo claim copyright to it. So whatever use could be made of the photo to provide education to the public is nullified.
London City Police also have a part to play in hiding the important circumstances of the fatality. Nothing was mentioned in the press releases on its website. Not a single photo was provided of the collision site, and no mention was made as to how and why the collision occurred.
A number of cyclists and cycling organizations also typically involve themselves in comments on recent cyclist collisions. Many of these persons hold strong opinions about how collisions occur and what needs to be done to prevent those collisions. But it is unclear how many of these persons actually have any detailed information about the present fatality, or about any cyclist fatality in London. It is highly unlikely that they have that information because police do not release that information. Yet cyclists and their organizations do not express any public frustration over the fact that they should have the information they do not have.
Government officials also contribute their piece of good intentions. They enact legislation that makes it against the law for cyclists to ride on a sidewalk, regardless of the circumstances. So impressionable or inexperienced cyclists, even knowing that they might be unsafe on a urban road, ride in the lane accompanied by motor vehicle traffic because that is the law. Whether this was a factor in the present fatality is unknown. But essentially nothing is known about this fatality.
Gorski Consulting has monitored the activities of cyclists in London in substantial detail in the last 5 years and observations have been made along Dundas Street in the vicinity of Vancouver Street. However without knowing exactly where the impact occurred, or anything about the damage to the motor vehicle or cycle, we are limited in our ability to comment. What remains is to show some general views of the area and what cyclist observations were made in the recent past.
The Accident Site
The images below are taken from Googlemaps and provide some general indication of the characteristics of the accident site. The first image below shows a general view of Dundas Street near Vancouver. The news media showed that the struck cycle was lying in the westbound lane of Dundas next to a fire hydrant.
The image below shows a view looking northwest, from Vancouver Street and toward the location of the fire hydrant where the struck cycle was found.
An the next image shows a view looking east along Dundas Street toward the location of the fire hydrant.
These views show that Dundas Street is an arterial roadway which has no facilities for cyclists. An experienced cyclist should know this. But again, it is unclear if the cyclist was actually riding in the westbound lane or crossing Dundas Street, or something else entirely.
Poor Road Surface Conditions
Recent views of the westbound lane of Dundas Street show that its surface was in poor condition. A westbound cyclist travelling close to the curb in this lane might be influenced to steer around the various road problems and potentially into the path of an approaching motor vehicle. The photos below, taken on May 6, 2025, show the extent of some of these road surface problems.
Since absolutely nothing was revealed about the cyclist fatality no one can know whether these poor road surface conditions had any relation to how and why the collision occurred.
Observations of Cyclists Near The Collision Site
Gorski Consulting has been monitoring cyclists behaviours and characteristics throughout the streets of London for many years. Specific attention has been paid to arterial roadways such as Dundas Street between Highbury Ave and Clarke Road. This road segment is about 2.4 kilometres in distance. The accident site at Vancouver Street is about halfway within that distance.
The following table shows the number of cyclists observed on Dundas Street between Highbury Ave and Clarke Road between the years 2022 and 2024.
The above table shows that a very large percentage (89.8%) of observed cyclists were found to be riding on the sidewalk as opposed to riding within the curb lane. This is in direct contravention to the law in London and in the Province of Ontario which prohibits such behaviour. Yet, the cycle in the current fatal collision was found within the westbound lane, suggesting that the cyclist was possibly in that lane when struck. At least the cyclist was unlikely to be riding on the north sidewalk when struck. However this would suggest that a rare event occurred because cyclists are not normally found riding within the roadway in this road segment. Again, nothing has been revealed as to the actual circumstances surrounding the collision.
A sample of the types of cyclists observed near the collision location will be presented here and it will be seen that all these cyclists were found to be riding on the north sidewalk, not within the westbound lane of Dundas.
Discussion
Much can be learned and understood about how fatal collisions occur and how to prevent them if officials were cooperative in releasing basic information about those tragedies. Unfortunately this is not occurring. What is occurring is that local cycling groups gather at an accident site and then attach a white “ghost bike” to the area. And the ghost bike rests there for a few years until someone removes it. Examples of these memorials in London are shows below.
The above photos are all taken from Hamilton Road which has been notorious for cyclist fatal collisions. Nothing has been improved on Hamilton Road because there has been no information released about how those fatal collisions occurred. And the same result is likely to occur at the current site on Dundas at Vancouver.
The quote at the beginning of this article is repeated again: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. That quote can now be changed with respect to cyclist collisions in London Ontario: “The road to hell is built on false intentions”. This is because all involved are distributing propaganda about the importance of road safety, and how they want to improve the safety of cyclists, but those comments are false. If they were true all involved would sit down and study how those cyclist collisions are occurring and make that information known, both to drivers of motor vehicles and to cyclists.
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