Citynews Toronto: Councillor proposes cycling ban on west-end street after fatal accident
08/21/2012 | Shawne McKeown, CityNews.ca
One city councillor has floated the idea of banning cycling on a quiet street near St Clair Avenue West and Christie Street, where a cyclist was killed earlier this month.
Joseph Mavec, 47, died on Aug. 6 on Wychwood Avenue when his bike tire jammed in a streetcar track. He fell to the ground and fatally hit his head. Police said he wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, who chairs the city’s public works and infrastructure committee, told the Globe and Mail he’d consider a ban on cycling on Wychwood to prevent future accidents.
The ban would be much less expensive to implement and enforce than ripping up the unused streetcar tracks, he said.
Minnan-Wong, who supported the controversial removal of bike lanes on Jarvis Street, has also proposed removing parking spaces on the street.
Cycle Toronto (formerly the Toronto Cyclists Union), meanwhile, is calling on the city to study the dangers streetcar tracks pose to bike riders.
“At present, the City of Toronto does not track data on non-collision related cycling accidents. Beginning to track non-collision accident data will be an important first step towards improving road safety for cyclists,” the group said in a statement released earlier this month.
The tracks on Wychwood were last in use in 1978.
