Tragedy on Avenue Road not an Anomaly
Last Wednesday, Miguel Joshua Escanan’s young life was taken while riding his bike on Avenue Road, metres beyond the end of ActiveTO bike lanes (and where a speedway begins).
Launching Road Rules videos
Road Rules videos put viewers in a bike seat to show the reality of cycling in Toronto.
Road Rules videos put viewers in a bike seat to show the reality of cycling in Toronto
Launched to coincide with the start of Bike Month in Toronto, Cycle Toronto is releasing a series of short videos (click to view) which show what “sharing the road” really means from the position of the bike seat. If you’ve ever been confused as to why someone is biking next to the crosswalk instead of using the left lane to make a turn, or why someone is biking next to parked cars instead of the middle of the lane, Road Rules will clear up the uncertainty.
Shot in split-screen using an identical scenario from the perspective of a person driving and a person biking, the videos demonstrate that what may feel like an annoyance from behind the dashboard, can feel like life or death from behind the handlebars. The videos highlight that while laws governing vehicles in Ontario like making left turns or merging left to pass may make sense for cars and trucks, they don’t always make sense when riding a bike. Road Rules videos delve into those nuances that are hard to understand if you haven’t been in a particular situation.
“While most of us know what riding in a car feels like in Toronto, there aren’t many opportunities to teach people how to drive around people biking, or to take people unfamiliar with cycling for a bike ride and show them what it’s like from that perspective. By giving them the visceral experience of these videos, we’re hoping to build empathy on our streets. We all want to get home safely at the end of the day,” said Jared Kolb, Executive Director of Cycle Toronto.
The 30-second videos reveal common points of confusion and conflict like making a left turn, sharing a traffic lane, stopping in a bike lane, dooring, and the infamous “right hook.” “When someone passes you at 60 km an hour or opens their door on you, it can be the thing that makes you question why you’re risking your life just getting to work. But of course we know that it can be better”, Kolb says. “By demonstrating the reality of how many ambiguous situations and points of conflict are possible just on a regular street, it becomes clear that high quality separated and intuitive infrastructure is the solution where education cannot fill the gaps.”
Building off of a popular Cycle Toronto workshop, ideas were crowdsourced from social media and the most ambiguous situations between road users were selected. The videos will be broadcast on CP24 throughout Bike Month and were supported by the ECHO Foundation and Toronto Hydro.
“Road safety is very important to us, as our crews spend many hours travelling Toronto’s streets each year,” says Tori Gass of Toronto Hydro. “We support Cycle Toronto and their efforts to educate and raise awareness about cycling safety and these videos are another great example of the work they’re doing to encourage Toronto drivers and cyclists to share the road.”
For more information, please visit cycleto.ca/roadrules
Media contacts:
Jared Kolb
Executive Director, Cycle Toronto
416-729-9023
jared [at] cycleto [dot] ca
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