Toronto Star >>
We should not regard the horrific death of a cyclist as a one-off event to be dismissed as the act of a lone motorist.

Not only have there been similarly ghastly events in the past – including the driver who, last November, used his vehicle as a weapon to permanently maim a cyclist, costing him his leg –   people’s lives are threatened by road rage on our streets every day.

Every type of Toronto traveller indulges himself in one way or another. Some cyclists, it has been observed again and again – and again – disregard stop lights. Pedestrians do the same, and scowl at the complaining commuters they’re holding up.

Drivers commit similar infractions, from rolling stops and cruising in bike lanes, to turning without signaling. Some drive with the conviction that cyclists simply should not be on the road. They have written so in letters to the editor, and it often shows on the road.

But motor vehicles drive the stakes much higher. I was run over by a truck and dragged under it. But I survived. In my case, no witness came to report the erratic behaviour of the driver prior to the crash, so he was charged with making an “unsafe turn,” rather than say, assault with a weapon, or even careless driving. Instead of jail time, he’ll face a maximum fine of $120.

The so-called “ghost bikes” that mark places where cyclists have been killed are proliferating throughout the GTA. People are dying on our streets due to either negligence – drivers sending text messages for example – or through a visceral, hateful hunger to exact revenge.

My own friends have confirmed that when they enter a motor vehicle, encased as they are behind steel and glass, a transformation takes place. They see the world through this protected urban tank, and their behaviour changes. As an occasional driver, I too, can attest to the fact that we become estranged from, and more competitive with each other. Even the most banal lane changes become crucial innings to be won or lost, with the attendant sense of victory, loss or fury.

It’s rare to see cyclists honking (or ringing) in anger at each other, or swearing with shaking fists. I’ve had a few words to be sure, but nothing to make me feel the embarrassment I’ve felt after yelling out of my car window at someone who has just cut me off. (What could I possibly say to  undo the act?)

Spontaneous exchanges of (sarcastic) comments, or apologies between cyclists and pedestrians usually remain civil, or at least within the wide realm of human conversation.

Interaction with or among automobilists tends to degenerate more quickly. The speeds are faster, drivers are physically insulated and isolated, and less sensitive, or oblivious to the impact they make on people around them.
As a cyclist and pedestrian, I never experienced the number of confrontations in Paris or London that I have in Toronto. With each episode I’m astonished at how difficult it is to agree on even the most basic facts. Just last week I tried to point out the diminishing space a driver was giving me as he careered toward the curb, as though unaware of my presence. “You are cutting me off. Look! You are leaving me no space here…” – to no avail.

Now, though, more pedestrians isolate themselves from others, deafened as they are to outside sound by iPod ear buds, or so absorbed in texting as to be blind to the bikes and cars coming straight at them.

But while pedestrians are the unsung miscreants of Toronto’s streets, and cyclists the source of an inordinate amount of public irritation, their misdeeds harm only themselves.

Cars and trucks are potential killing machines. Close to 3,000 people die on Canada’s roads every year. Those armed with a steering wheel and two to four tonnes of steel should keep in mind that the point they’re trying to make, or the time they’re trying to save, is probably not worth it.

By the time we take stock of what our rage has created – and destroyed – it’s invariably too late.
Let’s look out for each other.