City council asked to consider safety changes to two deadly Toronto roads

Thestar.com
Nov. 5, 2021

Two Toronto arterial roads where three people died last month could soon get a set of design changes if city politicians give their stamp of approval.

Council be asked to vote next week on proposals to revamp Parkside Drive in the city’s west end and O’Connor Drive in East York. Both proposals, brought forward by respective area city councillors, aim to reduce vehicle speed and increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

Valdemar Avila and his wife Fatima were killed on Parkside Drive on Oct. 12 when a speeding driver hit their car. Three other vehicles were involved in the collision.

A few days later an 81-year-old pedestrian crossing O’Connor Drive near Pape Avenue was struck and killed by a driver of a Porsche sedan. The pedestrian, according to police, was thrown into the opposite lane, then hit again by another car driver.

In one of next week’s member’s motions, Coun. Gord Perks (Parkdale-High Park) is asking city staff to consider reducing the speed limit on Parkside Drive from 50 km/h to 40 km/h between Bloor Street and Lake Shore Boulevard. The proposal would also add a sidewalk to parts of the west side of Parkside Drive, next to High Park. The motion also asks for improved lighting and adding Automated Speed Enforcement cameras, currently limited by the province to school zones.

Some of the proposed changes would be welcomed by community advocates who pushed the city for years to protect pedestrians and cyclists, but part of Perks’s motion also proposes adding Green P parking spots on the west side of Parkside, which is causing some controversy in the community.

“It makes absolutely zero sense to try to pass this off as a safety measure,” said resident Faraz Gholizadeh, one of the safety advocates who have been asking for better protection measures in the area. He said there’s “plenty” of parking spaces both on the other side of Parkside and inside High Park, so there’s no need for more such spaces.

“We’re trying to accommodate the pedestrians and cyclists that are in danger from these speeding vehicles, and (the councillor) is accommodating the cars that are already making the streets unsafe. It’s so bizarre.”

A community petition in circulation demands that the city also consider adding a dedicated bike lane to the west side of Parkside Drive. If installed, this bike lane would connect the Bloor Street bike lanes to the Martin Goodman Trail.

Perks said he agrees dedicated bike lanes are a better solution, but installing them must follow the complete streets guidelines, which could take years to implement.

“I don’t want to wait a few years to deal with the most dangerous part of the street,” he said of Parkside Drive’s long stretch downhill. “By putting in the sidewalks and some parking spots you effectively narrow the street and slow drivers down in the interim, while doing the final design work. It’s a temporary measure, using parking as traffic calming temporarily.”

Perks said the city’s road classification systems makes it hard to change street designs for the safety of users -- demands from him and his predecessor to reduce speed limits on Parkside Drive have been rejected before.

“Unfortunately, most members of council usually vote for moving traffic faster rather than making the streets safer,” he said.

Gholizadeh, who decried the lack of community consultations prior to the motion being added to the council agenda, said the reduction of the speed limit is a good move but doesn’t add much if no stronger enforcement measures are implemented.

“No one is paying attention to the current 50 km/h speed limit, and no one will pay attention to 40 km/h,” he said. “You need something to slow the cars down. Automated speed enforcement will do that. Adding dedicated bike lanes will do that.”

Another member’s motion at city council next week asks to reduce speed limit on O’Connor Drive from 50 km/h to 40 km/h on some stretches, install a red light camera at the intersection of O’Connor and Pape by the end of this year and ask that the Automated Speed Enforcement cameras come to this area.

City council meets next Tuesday.