‘Vote like it was your loved one whose life was stolen’: City council has the power to prevent all of Toronto’s road tragedies

The failure of our Vision Zero plan, which was promised to get us to zero deaths last year, primarily rests on the shoulders of our city councillors.

Thestar.com
Oct. 24, 2022
Jessica Spieker
OPINION

Friends and Families for Safe Streets is the club you never want to join -- it means your loved one was suddenly killed or you survived a crash with devastating injuries.

My crash left me with a broken spine and a brain injury, after a reckless driver slammed into me on a dangerously designed street. I nearly died a second time after a huge blood clot travelled up from my leg, through my heart and into my lungs. My future as I had envisioned it was stolen from me.

What I went through pales in comparison, however, to the heartbreak of my colleagues whose loved ones were violently ripped away by a crash. They had police show up on their doorstep with their loved one’s belongings in a bag, delivering earth-shattering news. They had to identify their loved one’s remains, plan a funeral and battle with a broken and hostile insurance industry when they were least capable. They had to decide what to do with the bloodied clothing, what to do with their child’s now-silent bedroom.

These life sentences of anguish, pain, anger and grief are inflicted on so many Toronto families year after year, and it stings unbearably to know that all of them are preventable. Our most desperate plea is to make changes that will save others from experiencing the tragedy that we have.

This is where Vision Zero comes in. The core belief of Vision Zero is that all deaths and serious injuries resulting from crashes are preventable through design improvement of roads. We saw some excellent examples of “complete streets” built during the pandemic: Danforth, midtown Yonge, Bayview and University were completed at an unprecedented pace for Toronto.

Complete streets save lives by creating safe, dedicated space for road users of all ages and abilities. Complete streets have wide, unobstructed sidewalks that prioritize accessibility. They have protected lanes for active transportation, where a physical curbed barrier makes it difficult for people driving to veer out of their lane and hurt or kill someone.

They have frequent crosswalks, so people aren’t forced to cross midblock. At intersections, the corners are sharp rather than gently sloped, so people are forced to drive slowly and turn carefully. They have curb bump-outs at crosswalks to reduce exposure to car traffic, and raised crosswalks that act like speed humps. They make our public space safer and more enjoyable.

All of these design upgrades are easily implemented. They are incredibly economical, costing just pennies on the dollar compared to the cost of car infrastructure. It is infuriating that Vision Zero and complete streets aren’t being rapidly implemented across the city. This failure is due to a lack of political will on the part of Toronto city councillors. The failure of our Vision Zero plan, which was promised to get us to zero deaths last year, primarily rests on their shoulders.

The municipal election on Oct. 24 is a chance to send our leaders a message that residents care about road safety. We can demand an end to Toronto’s road violence crisis.

To help voters decide, Friends and Families for Safe Streets -- as part of a coalition with The Centre for Active Transportation, Walk Toronto and Cycle Toronto -- have created the Safe and Active Streets for All candidate survey. You can view the responses of candidates who commit to the 10 priority actions that would end road violence in our communities.

This election gives us a chance to elect leaders who care. We ask you to vote like it was your loved one whose life was stolen by a preventable crash, or your health and life that was destroyed. Because in the future, if we once again elect a cohort of leaders who value driving convenience above all else, it could be.