After pedestrian deaths, Scarborough councillors call for better enforcement, more crosswalks

Thestar.com
Sept. 26, 2019
Francine Kopun

As a 17-year-old and 65-year-old were being mourned -- the latest pedestrians killed crossing busy Scarborough streets -- local city councillors are frustrated at the often years-long process to get new crosswalks and minimal traffic enforcement aimed at speeding motorists.

Thirty pedestrians have died on Toronto streets so far this year, one-third of them in Scarborough, many of them struck by drivers while crossing midblock.

Councillor Paul Ainslie said his office asked for a crosswalk on Scarborough Golf Club Rd. in 2014, near where the 17-year-old was struck and killed Monday. Transportation staff concluded it wasn’t warranted. He tried again last July, amid demands from residents scared of speedy drivers on a roughly 200-metre stretch with no crosswalk or signalled intersection.

City staff say results of that study are expected next April.

“I am not satisfied,” with either the time it takes to get a response from transportation staff or a single police officer dedicated to traffic enforcement for all of 43 Division, from Brimley Rd. east to the Pickering border, said Ainslie (Ward 24 Scarborough-Guildwood). “I believe we could do better to expedite requests.

“We have an issue with motorists who speed and are distracted on our roads , I have constantly asked for more traffic enforcement in Scarborough Guildwood with my latest attempt in May of this year.”

Transportation staff take about nine months to review a crosswalk request, he said. Toronto police Supt. Frank Barredo wrote Ainslie in May that all officers do some traffic enforcement, and that resident complaints of problem areas for speeding are often found to be “unsubstantiated.”

Councillor Jennifer McKelvie says there are too few pedestrian crossings, crosswalks and signalled intersections in her Ward 25 Scarborough--Rouge Park. Staff-determined thresholds to get them recommended for adoption by community council are “rarely met.”

City council in June approved a new “Vision Zero” plan, aimed at eliminating pedestrian and cyclist serious injuries and deaths, after the first plan failed to halt a spike in fatalities. Changes include speed limit reductions across the city and new “zebra” crosswalks at intersections including those in designated school safety zones, pedestrian safety corridors and senior citizen safety zones.

A transportation study of Scarborough concluded the area has Toronto’s highest rate of pedestrian collisions resulting in death, and that it has accelerated over the past decade. Factors include long stretches of wide “high speed” arterial roads without pedestrian crossings.

Mayor John Tory told reporters Wednesday that city staff need to study requests for pedestrian crossings and hastily reacting to resident complaints wouldn’t get the most benefit. But he is asking if they can pick up the pace as part of “Vision Zero 2.0”

“I think that was certainly the intent of the city council was to speed these things up,” said Tory, who later met with construction company officials to talk about pedestrian safety in another busy corridor, condo-filled Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave., where on Sept. 10 Evangeline Lauroza, 54, was fatally struck by a cement truck driver.

“There probably is no area in North America experiencing more intense development pressures,” Tory told reporters after the meeting, adding that construction officials, union representatives, councillors and police agreed to reconvene in two weeks with ideas to quickly improve safety.

Tory rejected a suggestion the city isn’t moving quickly enough to protect pedestrians, noting the speed-limit reductions as well as a doubling of the number of red-light cameras and coming introduction of photo radar.

Not all Scarborough residents want to hit the brakes. Councillor Cynthia Lai (Ward 23 Scarborough North) recently held a town hall where most of the roughly 100 residents opposed blanket speed limit reductions.

She said that in her ward, a significant number of traffic fatalities have resulted from left turns or in areas where lighting was poor, or as a result of distracted driving, and midblock crossing is another peril. “We need to have a comprehensive plan,” she said.

Councillor Gary Crawford (Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest) said that while the process of getting crossings installed generally works well, it could move more quickly.

“Collaboration with the community is an essential step in getting the right product at the right location,” Crawford said.

Councillor Jim Karygiannis (Ward 22 Scarborough Agincourt), has been focused on getting new speed humps and on banning U-turns in front of schools in his ward.

He said cracking down on speeders is the most important piece of the puzzle, but pedestrians also need to pay close attention when they’re crossing, especially midblock.

“If anybody has any greater ideas, I am willing to listen,” he said. “It’s very important that we all come home safe at night.”