Carnage: Nearly 100 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed on Toronto streets since the summer of 2016.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
..................................................................................................................................
Toronto’s streets? It’s hell out there
Driving in Toronto is hell. Vehicles racing from all directions, pedestrians dashing into the street without even looking, endless detours and confusing signs, and aggressive bicyclists (often with loud whistles) determined at all costs to assert their right to the road. I drive in a constant state of fear (Toronto Fails Its Road Test – editorial, June 14).
If bicyclists and motorists alike would conduct themselves with some empathy for how the perceived enemy is struggling, there would be many fewer accidents. I am reminded of a safety slogan I used to hear on the radio as a child: “He was right, dead right, as he rolled along, but he’s just as dead as if he was wrong.”
I admit to foolish idealism on this. Go ahead – spend millions instead.
Wayne Yetman, Toronto
...............................................
Last week alone, I was nearly mowed down (by two cars and one bicycle) while crossing at stop signs and a crosswalk in broad daylight in a residential neighbourhood. My response is my own style of vigilantism. I have run after cars, taken photos of licence plates, yelled loudly so others witness, filed police reports and even stopped a driver so I could confront her when she turned into a driveway. At this point, I feel it is the only protection I have.
Thoughtless driving when it comes to pedestrians is not only about road design, speed limits or other physical measures. It’s about changing behaviour that assumes a driver’s right to get somewhere 30 seconds faster supersedes my right not to be maimed or killed.
Patricia Phillips, Toronto
...............................................
Moving to Toronto from the Netherlands, biking capital of the world, has been a sobering experience for this keen cyclist. Canadian friends have declared me insane for allowing my 11-year-old to bike to school. He was doing that in Holland as a four-year-old.
Local government could easily implement two educational measures here with catchy ad campaigns – examples of which are constantly ringing out irritating but contagious jingles between TV shows in the Netherlands – to help stop two-wheel road deaths.
First, drivers should be encouraged to check for cyclists over their shoulders on all turns with a catchy ditty like “Look over your shoulder, cyclists will live to get older” or “Check your blind spot, don’t make a cyclist’s life stop.” Every Dutch person can tell you the Dutch version of these. Having an edgy rap star add a beat to this would imprint it in drivers’ minds.
Secondly, teach kids to bike on the road, and the traffic rules from an early age. Every kid in the Netherlands gets yearly traffic-rule training during primary school. Fifth-graders all take a biking road test with their whole class.
Local government needs to educate young people early so they grow up to be lifelong bike commuters, especially because the city they live in is only going to get a lot more congested.
Bridget van Akkooi, Oakville, Ont.
...............................................
I’ve been commuting by bicycle in Toronto for almost 30 years. Not a week goes by when I don’t have a really close call and stop for a moment to say, “Wow, was that frightening.” I have a simple, albeit costly, recommendation. Put red light cameras at each and every major downtown intersection. Once aggressive motorists start to see how much their actions cost, my guess is they will change. (Please don’t get me started on cyclist bullies. That’s for another day.)
Joel Rosenbloom, Toronto
...............................................
I have seen 60-year-olds take parents with walkers across a busy road between traffic lights at rush hour. Or seniors on motorized devices “jay-driving” across busy streets. And mothers pushing baby carriages the wrong way while texting, then cross at street corners texting or talking on phones.
Whatever consequences follow can’t be attributed solely to drivers. We cannot make our world safe for people who pay virtually no attention to their own safety.
David Cramer, Toronto
...............................................
Welcome a sunset clause
Canada will be forced into a bad trade agreement because of U.S. economic domination (Canada, U.S. Set Sights On Summer NAFTA Talks, June 14). So we should welcome a clause that would terminate NAFTA in five years unless all parties want to extend it. Canada should use the time to build pipelines, cut metric-size lumber for new markets, and source winter produce and tourism from Mexico and Spain. Having one key customer is a bad business strategy.
Tom Millard, Toronto
Civil service culture
Re Senior Bureaucrats In Charge Of Flawed Phoenix Pay System Weren’t Fired (June 15): As a former head of the public service in B.C. and the current CEO of a not-for-profit, I believe strongly in creating great workplace cultures.
I therefore found it ironic that the same article that reported that Canada’s Auditor-General believes there is a culture in the federal public service that is fearful of making mistakes, taking risks and conveying hard truths, then questions why no one was fired for not conveying hard truths about the Phoenix pay system.
In my experience, politicians and the press are often too quick to look for who has been fired whenever a mistake is discovered in the public sector. We should want a culture that is not fearful of making mistakes, that takes risks and conveys hard truths, but if the first response to a mistake is to call for the dismissal of the person who may have made it, how can that culture ever be created?
Mistakes will be made, and the sign of a great culture is that it learns from mistakes and doesn’t suppress them because of a fear of being fired.
Allan Seckel, Vancouver
June’s third Sunday
Re Oh, To Have One More Pint With Dad (June 15): Gary Mason’s perceptive columns with Western Canadian viewpoints are a must-read for me. But his eloquent, evocative chronicle of visiting his elderly father and spending a few precious hours with him in a pub was exceptionally moving and joyous. Father’s Day isn’t just for those of us who are still around, but also a time for fond memories of the dads – many long gone – who shaped our lives.
Jim Hickman, Bracebridge, Ont.
Every generation
Re Stupid World (editorial, June 15): Every generation produced its group of senior Luddites, decrying the disastrous effects of new developments.
Cars, comic books, rock and roll, cannabis, whatever. Now The Globe and Mail denounces the nefarious effects of the Internet and technology.
Never mind that some of the data in this Norwegian study was collected in what was practically the Flintstone age of modern technology. Let’s ignore also that international studies have put Norway (and Canada) in the global elite of scholastic achievement.
Anyway, Darwinian selection will have its way: All these people looking at their phones rather than the traffic will become extinct sooner or later.
Walter Schwager, Toronto