Toronto can ban texting while walking, province says

Ontario’s Transportation Minister said Friday the city does not need permission from the province to pass a municipal bylaw banning texting while walking.

Thestar.com
July 15, 2016
By Robert Benzie

Queen’s Park will not stand in the way of the city of Toronto making it illegal to text while walking.

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said Friday the city does not need permission from the province to pass a municipal bylaw banning texting while walking.

“Road safety is our priority, but it is a shared responsibility amongst all road users. Keep your head up when crossing the road and always be aware of your surroundings!” said Del Duca, whose government is doing an advertising blitz warning about the dangers of texting and driving.

“We have no plan to make changes to the Highway Traffic Act in response to this request,” the minister said, referring to city calls for an amendment to provincial statutes to allow the ban.

“Municipalities are mature levels of government with powers to establish bylaws in the best interest of their communities.

“The city of Toronto has the power to pass a bylaw similar to the one requested (Thursday)."

Del Duca’s comments came after a proposal from Councillor Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York South-Weston).

At city council late Thursday, Nunziata requested that Queen’s Park consider making changes to the Highway Traffic Act to prohibit “actively using a hand-held wireless communication device or hand-held electronic entertainment device while on any travelled portion of a roadway.”

Her motion was passed by a vote of 26 to 15, with the support of Mayor John Tory.

But Toronto pedestrian advocate Dylan Reid said the move targets the wrong problem. Rather, council should look to improve safety through better infrastructure and by persuading drivers to follow the rules.

“It feeds into the dialogue of victim-blaming,” Reid said. “It’s actually pretty well established that . . . very few pedestrians who are hit by cars are distracted.”

Approximately two-thirds of pedestrian injuries from collisions with vehicles are the result of driver error, according to a June 2015 Toronto Public Health report.

It found pedestrians had the right of way in 67 per cent of collisions they were involved in from 2008-2012. Pedestrians did not have the right of way in only 19 per cent of those incidents, while it’s unclear who was at fault in the remaining 14 per cent.

Toronto police paint a different picture. In an October 2015 Youtube video, police warn that pedestrians are at fault just as often as drivers in collisions. Const. Clint Stibbe said that the challenge for police is making pedestrians understand the risks of texting and walking.

“The reality is that the risk is far higher than anyone realizes and taking that risk could put that individual in a situation where they could be injured or killed, whether they are a pedestrian, cyclist or driver,” he said in an email.

Ontario’s chief coroner reported in 2010 that roughly one-fifth of victims in accidental pedestrian deaths were distracted, either by use of a cellphone or ear buds, walking their dog or riding a skateboard.

But inattentive drivers outnumbered inattentive pedestrians in fatal or injury collisions nearly 14,000 to 567 in 2013, the most recent year with available data, according to the Ministry of Transportation.

Toronto is not the first municipality to explore punishing people who text while they cross the street.

• New Jersey assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt co-sponsored a bill in April that. if passed, would fine pedestrians $50 for using their phones while crossing a roadway. The legislation is still in its planning stages.
• In 2014, Calgary councillor Ward Sutherland tried to make texting and walking a ticketable offence, but no ban came of it.

“From my perception, why is it any different from distracted driving?” Sutherland said. “It’s the exact same thing, both are at fault.”

“We know that investing in infrastructure spurs economic growth and increases GDP which is why we’ve decided to make a historic $160-billion investment in roads, bridges, schools and hospitals across Ontario,” Sousa said in a statement.

“It’s true, we are already making capital investments to promote strong long-term economic performance.”

Ontario is taking advantage of record-low interest rates to make the infrastructure investments, added Sousa, noting long-term borrowing is forecast to be at its lowest levels since the deep recession of 2008.

He said the province remains on track to eliminate its deficit by 2018, although the FAO has cautioned that deficits could soon return because of spending pressures on the government.

Progressive Conservative MPP and finance critic Vic Fedeli said in a statement that “reckless spending is causing Ontario’s debt to spiral out of control with no end in sight.”

“Ontario will continue to be the largest sub-national borrower in the world,” added Fedeli (Nipissing).

He accused the government of using one-time revenues from the sale of assets such as Hydro One, contingency funds and other sources to “artificially” balance the budget by 2018, the year of the next provincial election.

New Democrat MPP Catherine Fife (Kitchener-Waterloo) said the debt is rising, because “instead of asking profitable businesses to pay their fair share, the Liberals have cut Ontario’s corporate tax rate so it’s lower than Alabama’s.”