Investigation exposes law-breaking drivers, dangerous intersections

A CityNews investigation has exposed bad behaviour on Toronto’s streets and a lack of enforcement at dangerous street corners.

Our team spent the week counting driving infractions at five intersections across the city and we found some of the worst were right downtown.

At Bay and Adelaide streets, we counted 90 offences in a one hour period, that included blocking intersections and crosswalks, forcing pedestrians and cyclists into live traffic, blowing through red lights, and even driving backwards.

A video posted by CityNews on Twitter which highlighted some of these infractions went viral online, leading to outrage from social media users.

The next day, paid duty officers were at the intersection directing traffic during rush hour as a result of some of the behaviour highlighted in the video.

Bay & Adelaide is wild. We spent 60 minutes here (not even rush hour) and counted at least 90 infractions. Drivers going through reds, getting stuck in the middle of intersections, blocking crosswalks, driving backwards & no enforcement. So many close calls. A glimpse here: pic.twitter.com/vRXlkF5kbn

— Tina Yazdani (@TinaYazdani) March 4, 2020

Pedestrian advocate Pedro Marques tells CityNews it doesn’t matter which intersection you examine, you’ll see the same behaviour.

“When they don’t enforce the rules, they create this culture of lawlessness that has led to a huge increase in pedestrian deaths,” said Marques. “I don’t feel safe in this city, that’s for sure. Pedestrians are given low priority here.”

At Front and York streets, more than 200 infractions were noted in a 60-minute period this week.

Richmond and University Avenues fared slightly better with only 24.

At Kennedy Road and Sheppard Avenue in Scarborough, 180 driving infractions were noted in an hour long period, the majority being drivers blasting through reds.

When asked why there appeared to be a lack of enforcement on the roads, Toronto Mayor John Tory said there are things that should occupy a police officer’s time more than traffic and “the real problem is that human behaviour has gone downhill and you can never have enough police officers to have one on every single corner.”

The number of police officers ticketing drivers has dropped drastically since a dedicated traffic enforcement team was disbanded in 2013.

“I think we’re measuring enforcement the wrong way,” Tory said.

The mayor said currently there are 120 officers dedicated to enforcing traffic laws and police are also hiring eight new officers to be deployed specifically in support of the Vision Zero road safety program.

Technological advancements have also helped. Almost 3,000 tickets were handed out last year after a red light camera was set up a Parliament and Richmond streets.

Marques said some of the solutions he believes would help with traffic enforcement is expanding parking enforcement to include traffic or a civilian department whose specific role is to enforce traffic rules.

“Parking enforcement never misses handing out a ticket because that’s all they do. If drivers start seeing regular enforcement, they’ll begin to follow the rules,” Marques said.

A cyclist who asked to remain anonymous said one of the pillars of Vision Zero is enforcement, but “this isn’t the way to do it.”

He was hit by a vehicle in December, but since he was uninjured and there was no damage to report, the incident would not be investigated.

“There’s just been no way to ever get anybody charged,” the cyclist said. “When Vision Zero started, I thought ‘Hey, great they’re taking it seriously’ but if people find a way to get around the law, they’re gonna do it.”

“If my faith has been shaken, it’s not in the police service,” Tory said when asked if he still has faith in the police force to enforce traffic infractions. “I think the real thing that has been disappointing is the deterioration of public behaviour.”

City officials say they’re actively conducting road redesign research to make safety improvements to the intersection at Bay and Adelaide streets.

The plan over the next few years is also to switch the bike lanes from the south side of the road to the north side.

More than 1,400 pedestrians were struck on Toronto roads in 2019 with 38 of those people being killed.

While that is down from the 1,700 people struck in 2018, pedestrians accounted for more than half of the traffic fatalities once again. A total of 40 pedestrians were killed among 66 traffic deaths.