Working for Safe Sidewalks on Avenue Road between Bloor St. & St. Clair Ave.
Disaster barely averted at Avenue Rd. & Cottingham
A Toronto cyclist is still shaken after narrowly escaping serious injury in a collision with a bus this past summer, and demands changes to the car-centric road conditions in neighbourhoods north of the core.
Residents want change, but people keep getting hurt
Recently, a cyclist was hit by a school bus while trying to cross Avenue Road in midtown Toronto. It’s not the first time someone has been hit along Avenue Road and it won’t be the last, which is why local residents and residents’ associations have been calling for the six-lane stretch of the thoroughfare south of St. Clair to be reimagined as a complete street that makes vulnerable road users the priority instead of automobiles.
In 2020, the Avenue Road Safety Coalition made a video to illustrate the safety issues posed by the narrow sidewalks in the 6-lane section of Avenue Rd. between Bloor Street and St. Clair Avenue. We spoke to many residents, business owners and local residents’ association members about the problems and potential solutions.
Toronto city council finally approved the midtown complete street pilot — safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists along Yonge Street between Bloor Street and Davisville Avenue — in early February.
Housing and development in the city is changing as people change the way they get around the city, and Centricity Condos reflects this shift.According to City of Toronto estimates, the …
Toronto is experiencing a surge in pedestrians struck by drivers, and though the year is only a month and a half underway, the city has already recorded a jaw-dropping 197 cases of motor vehicles colliding with pedestrians since January 1, 2023.
At 3:12 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2021, an automated speed enforcement (ACE) camera on Avenue Road took a photo that showed a driver racing north on the six-lane roadway at 121 km/h, well above the posted limit of 50 km/h. The owner of the vehicle was issued a $1,400 fine, the large amount calculated over how much over the limit the vehicle was going.
Please stay alert! When drivers are distracted by weather, poor driving conditions and all the rush and bustle of season, pedestrians are at even more risk.
The recent piece in the Globe and Mail, For pedestrians in Toronto, there’s a near-death experience waiting at every intersection serves as a stark reminder to all our Avenue Road supporters their friends and families to be careful and safe during this busy holiday season.
Kartik Saini, 20, died after being struck and dragged by a pickup at St. Clair Avenue and Yonge Street on Wednesday afternoon.
Parveen Saini says his family has “lost everything” after his 20-year-old nephew Kartik Saini, an international student from India, was struck and killed by a pickup truck driver making an apparent illegal right turn on Wednesday in Toronto.
Jane Ferguson was peeling potatoes when a police officer knocked on her door and told her that her husband of nearly 35 years was dead.
“In that moment I went from being a happily married woman to half a couple,” she said in her victim impact statement Monday at Old City Hall.
The Avenue Road Safety Coalition is fortunate to have a dream team advocating for improved pedestrian safety. Dianne along with returning Councillor Josh Matlow, will be our voices for a safer Avenue Road at City Council.
Dianne Saxe is an Environmental Lawyer with an impressive range of accomplishments and advocacy work.
My heart goes out to the reporter on this story; spending four hours in a car in Toronto’s hellish rush hour is not for the faint of heart. She cites several causes of our ever-worsening traffic woes, including her observations that “pandemic-era boons to city life, like CaféTO and more protected bike lanes, have reduced the amount of space for drivers.”