For Toronto’s cyclists, the fear is real, and it’s holding them back

Thestar.com
June 14, 2018
Gilbert Ngabo

Lindsay Williams was biking west on the north side of Bloor St. near St. George St. Tuesday afternoon and was stopped at a red light when she saw, on the southeast corner, a truck hit a cyclist.

She immediately ran into the intersection to try to stop traffic and see if she could help.

But it was too late for 58-year-old Dalia Chako, who died at the scene.

“I was so scared I didn’t even go on my bike again,” said Williams, a social outreach worker who relies on cycling to get to work and around the city.

She walked her bike all the way home that day and has since been taking the TTC, not sure when she’ll muster enough courage to return to pedalling. Williams noted the woman appeared to be in the bike lane and was wearing a helmet. Neither guarantee safety.

“You think you’re being safe and you’re protecting yourself, but I still watched her die,” she said. “You start to think you’re going to be hit all the time no matter what you do.”

An all-season cyclist for the past 15 years, Williams said she has experienced collisions and close calls. Last week, a driver made a right-hand turn and hit her near Bloor St. and Dufferin St., got out of his car, fixed his bent mirror and drove off without even asking if she was OK.

She said unless there are concrete blocks or cement poles for separation, cars will “always drive into bike lanes.”

“It doesn’t feel like there’s any safety at all,” she said.

It’s a common sentiment among other cyclists, and not just following the recent rash of deaths and injuries on the city’s streets.

In response to a call-out for stories, the Star heard from dozens of cyclists who said they felt unsafe while riding, and several who had stopped cycling or taken hiatuses.

Others had adapted their own form of harm reduction, changing routes even if they take longer.

The city launched its $90-million Vision Zero plan in June 2016 to make life safer for pedestrians and cyclists, but almost a hundred of them have died since then.

Former chief city planner Jennifer Keesmaat called for the city to declare a state of emergency with the immediate action of lowering -- and enforcing -- speed limits.

U of T professor Richard Florida, an urban planning researcher, called Toronto’s streets “killing fields” in a Medium post, and noted the city’s rate of pedestrian deaths of 1.6 per 100,000 people in 2016 is worse than that of Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Portland, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo.

Alexandra Hong is still riding but has “radically changed” her route to work at OCAD, even waking up earlier to take a longer route mostly on the Martin Goodman Trail because she feels safer there. She even walks her bike for stretches downtown when she leaves the trail.

“It’s a choice I’m making because of fear for my life,” she said.

The 30-year-old “meticulously plans” when she deviates from that route, avoids biking at night and usually gives herself time to scout the way beforehand, just in case there are unexpected obstacles like construction.

Even though she’s now commuting to work on two wheels nearly every day, she still finds fear holding her back, and said she’s tired of the “us against them” mentality on the roads.

“We’re just all trying to get around, live our lives and not die,” she said.

University of Toronto graduate student Jeff Wintersinger used to commute exclusively by bike, until three years ago when he was hit by a car driver on Martin Goodman Trail. He reacted swiftly and hit the side of the car instead of being T-boned, but it was “unexpected” since he was on a bike path in a place that’s often teeming with children and families.

He has since changed his cycling habits, riding only for recreation, always with clubs and mainly on weekends.

He’d like to see Toronto double down on better infrastructure. Protected bike lanes are a good step forward, but the city should look at European models of designing intersections to prevent crashes, he said.

“People need to change the attitude where driving is seen more as a right than a responsibility,” he said.

Kristin Foster’s bike now sits mostly unused in her condo parking spot.

A few years ago, she was driven off the road after she says she was side-swiped by a driver who accelerated past her in traffic and then gave her the finger when she approached her about it.

“I was really shaken,” the 37-year-old said.

She wasn’t hurt, but almost immediately she gave up riding her beloved “Crayola blue and yellow” Gardin Ultima, after years of close calls.
Kristin Foster stopped cycling regularly after she was sideswiped by a driver a few years ago. "I barely get out on it because I am so scared and it makes me really sad because I really miss cycling a lot."
Kristin Foster stopped cycling regularly after she was sideswiped by a driver a few years ago. "I barely get out on it because I am so scared and it makes me really sad because I really miss cycling a lot."  (Eduardo Lima)

“That was it for me, “ she said. “I barely get out on it because I am so scared and it makes me really sad because I really miss cycling a lot.”

While “you can be a bad cyclist, a bad pedestrian, you can be a bad driver,” the difference between them is that “the pedestrian and the cyclist don’t have a car around their bodies.”

And even though she’s not riding much herself, Foster said she’s not immune to cycling fears.

“Every time someone is struck I look for the photos of the scene because I want to make sure it wasn’t one of my friends,” she said.

“It’s like, do I recognize this bike?”