It’s summer in Toronto, and that means the arrival of two things: construction season, and prime bicycling weather.
Those two trends collided dangerously Tuesday morning, when a cyclist in her 20s was hit by a truck as she rode alongside a construction site on Jarvis.
Police have yet to release details of the crash or the name of the cyclist, but according to a police spokesperson she was taken to hospital with internal and leg injuries described as serious but not life-threatening.
The accident occurred shortly after 9:30 am on southbound stretch of Jarvis that is currently missing a bike lane – it has been removed while work is done on a water main beneath the northwest corner of Jarvis and Gerrard. To accommodate the construction site the street narrows to one car lane in each direction.
While the northbound bike lane hasn’t been affected is still partially visible, the southbound lane disappears a few meters before the construction site, creating a tight spot where cyclists are forced to merge into the car lane.
All the bike lanes on Jarvis are scheduled to be removed later this year, following the controversial council decision last July.
Nick Cluley, president of Cycle Toronto’s board of directors, says Tuesday’s crash speaks to the need to keep the Jarvis lanes, but is also evidence that the city should better take bikers into account when setting up construction sites.
“Any construction zone, the way they’re set up currently, I’ve seen very few that regard cyclists as one of the road users being affected,” Cluley says.
There are currently 87 on-road construction sites in downtown Toronto, many of which present safety hazards for cyclists. Many place riders on narrow, uneven surfaces between traffic and concrete barriers.
Cluley would like to see signage at sites to alert drivers to riders’ presence and instruct both motorists and cyclists how to properly merge. He also questions why it appears to be standard practice for sites to block off a full lane of traffic regardless of how large the actual work zone is.
Dan Egan, the city manager for cycling infrastructure, says that the province determines guidelines for construction site set-ups, but that city staff do everything they can to ensure biker safety where road work is being done.
His department was consulted on the Jarvis-Gerrard site and recommended keeping the northbound bike lane and maintaining the southbound one on as much of the road as possible. A sign was also erected that notified drivers of the end of the bike lane.
“We always look at how we can mitigate [dangers],” Egan says. “The reality is we generally don’t have enough room to create a separate bike lane through those construction zones.”
Cluley advises cyclists to be aware of their surroundings when approaching a construction site and to either stop and wait for cars to pass before merging into the open lane, or, if riders feel confident enough, to move into the car lane as early as possible and stay there so that they are not trapped between concrete construction barriers and moving traffic.
Under the Highway Traffic Act, bikers are allowed to take up an entire lane of traffic.
With months to go before road crews and riders pack up for the winter however, Cluley is concerned that we’ll see more accidents like Tuesday’s before the summer is done.
“Now that we’re in the thick of construction season and more and more people getting on bikes, unfortunately I think we’ll have more of these issues,” he says.
