After the Toronto Cyclists Union was launched to great fanfare by Mayor David Miller, and as the group prepares for their big coming out party at the Bloor Cinema tonight (May 29), at the very beginning of Bike Month, Toronto got a horrifying reminder of how badly the union’s advocacy is needed.

On May 22, a cyclist — a father who lived nearby — was riding on Eglinton Avenue West near Avenue Road when, directly in front of him, the door of a parked Volvo opened, striking him and sending him tumbling into the traffic lane. An approaching cube van had no warning and no way to stop — it struck the cyclist, giving him massive injuries. He died in hospital four hours later.
Our deepest sympathies go out to the man’s family — his sudden, unexpected death is a tragedy. All the more so because it might have been avoided if we took the safety of cyclists seriously in this city.
Immediately following the accident, the debate in the newspapers was over whether or not the driver of the car, who opened her door into the cyclist’s path, should be charged. Yvonne Bambrik of the Cyclists Union said yes. “It has to set a precedent. You need to be looking. You need to do a full shoulder check,” she told the National Post. “It’s an accident, and I understand that, but there needs to be some kind of repercussion.”

And though the Highway Traffic Act specifies that those opening the doors of parked vehicles are forbidden to do so “without first taking due precautions to ensure that his or her act will not interfere with the movement of or endanger any other person or vehicle,” Sgt. Tim Burrows of the Toronto Police seemed inclined to err on the side of sympathizing with the driver. In the Post report, he described the Volvo driver as “shaken,” and being in a state of “shock.” He said it’s difficult for a driver to see a cyclist even if they do look, and seemed to warn cyclists to take responsibility for their own safety. “If she didn’t look, would that be negligence? It’s very hard to label that as negligent.”

It may be unfair to single out Burrows, since his comments represent the average person’s approach to such things. Still, it is nearly impossible to imagine a similar reaction if the driver, rather than opening a car door without checking over her shoulder, had, say, made a left turn into traffic without looking and killed another driver, or had pulled out of a parking lot and killed a pedestrian on the sidewalk. In the enforcement of our laws, as elsewhere, we face the persistent attitude that roads are for cars and cyclists are uninvited guests on them who should proceed at their own risk.

That risk is great, and could be greatly minimized. We could take far quicker action to implement the Bike Plan, which would lay out a network of bike lanes and trails all across the city. The city of Ottawa has less than a third of Toronto’s population, but has more than three times as many bike lanes. We could put those bike lanes on the sidewalk side of parked cars, and could separate them from traffic with elevated curbs rather than stripes of paint. We could vigilantly enforce laws to protect cyclists and, when a tragedy occurs such as the one last week, we could take the opportunity to hammer home to car drivers and passengers that the safety of others on the road is their responsibility.

This — ensuring safety on the road for cyclists — is the entire reason for the Toronto Cyclists Union’s existence. So the message to them on the occasion of their launch is clear: congratulations on getting up and running. Now gear up and get to work.