In an effort to get more drivers to slow down, Toronto has introduced advanced pedestrian signalling, increased its use of automatic speed cameras, rebuilt entire intersections and improved cycling infrastructure by adding more protected intersections and bike lanes — but advocates say the city’s efforts are not fast enough, as more people have died in fatal collisions so far this year than during the same period in 2023.
Thirty people have died on Toronto roadways so far in 2024, the latest data from Toronto police shows.
That number includes 12 pedestrians, eight motorists, six cyclists and four motorcyclists who died on roadways as of Sept. 2. By the same point in 2023, there were 25 road fatalities.
“It’s unbelievably tragic,” said Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, an advocacy organization.
“This has been the deadliest year so far for people on bikes since Toronto’s been counting these stats from the Vision Zero program.”
One cyclist was killed in all of 2023, police data shows.
“There are things the city can be doing to eliminate these deaths, and unfortunately, we’re not doing them nearly fast enough,” he said.
The City of Toronto introduced its Vision Zero strategy in 2016 with the goal of reducing traffic-related deaths and serious injuries to zero after 78 people died the year prior.This year’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan budget was the largest since the inception of the strategy at $79 million, said Sheyda Saneinejad, who manages the projects — up from $72 million last year.
Saneinejad says she can’t speculate on why numbers have been trending in the wrong direction this year, even though data shows that fatal collisions have been on the decline generally since 2016.
The number of cycling fatalities, in particular, is “unexpected and quite concerning,” she said.
How the city is trying to slow drivers down
Saneinejad says this year’s money has been used for a wide range of initiatives including continuing a pilot project that forces vehicles to make slower, more controlled turns on wider streets and redesigning several intersections and roads, including ones where people were fatally and seriously injured in the past.
“People, fundamentally, are still driving too fast,” said Scott Butler, executive director of Good Roads, a municipal association that advocates for road safety across Ontario.
Changing infrastructure can do the work of slowing drivers down, Butler says.
He says wider roads, currently plentiful in the more suburban parts of the city, are a big problem because they promote people driving quickly.
“The infrastructure needs to be designed in a way that is somewhat agnostic to why people are needing safety interventions put in place,” Butler said.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re distracted, if they’re speeding or whatever the case may be,” he said. “We want to make sure that the system’s designed to mitigate what those outcomes are — so that people aren’t being killed.”
Butler says changing some of the turn radiuses, or putting in protrusions on the curbs to narrow the distance that pedestrians have to get from one side of the intersection to the other, help.
Saneinejad says the city understands the urgency and the pace of work is picking up as budgets have increased.
The city has implemented hundreds of interim measures using paint and temporary materials, she said, noting “geometric improvements need to happen soon.”
Cyclists say enforcement is key
Good road infrastructure is key, cyclists told CBC Toronto, but some who spoke are concerned there is too little enforcement to ensure it’s being used appropriately.
“It’s one thing to have bike lanes, but if they’re widely ignored, what’s the point?” said cyclist Bruce MacNeil.
“It’s one thing to have, you know, a dedicated, special intersection or something like that, but if they’re constantly blocked by indifference, why bother?”
A 24-year old woman cycling on Bloor Street was killed earlier this summer, when she veered out of a bike lane blocked by a dumpster for a construction project and was hit by a truck.
Blocked bike lanes or paths by vehicles has been a concern of cycling advocates for many years. Tougher fines kicked in Aug. 1 across the city for drivers who block bike lanes or bike paths. Fines that used to be $60 and $150, respectively, are now $200.
Enforcement efforts are expected to ramp up, Nazzareno Capano, the city’s manager of operational policy and initiatives, told CBC Toronto, particularly in “hot spots” where there are more frequent violators, but timing details were not provided.
