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Sidewalk bike strife

If you’ve ever walked down a city street you’ve seen them, and probably been annoyed by them. Rogue cyclists pedaling down the sidewalk, darting in between pedestrians, and very occasionally, knocking people over.

But the days of cycling on Toronto’s sidewalks with impunity may be over, as City Hall took steps Wednesday towards cracking down on riders who stray from the road.

At a meeting of the public works committee, councillors voted to direct city staff and the Toronto Police to come up with a strategy to more effectively enforce bylaws against sidewalk cycling. Staff will report back to the committee in June, but ideas floated at the meeting included more aggressive ticketing by police, creating an online database to allow citizens to report pedestrian-cyclist collisions, and even licensing bikers.

“This is a problem we have to pay attention to,” said public works chair Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong. “People are getting hurt.”

Karen Okamoto knows first hand how dangerous sidewalk cycling can be. Last August her 74-year-old father Nobu Okamoto died of severe head injuries after he was struck by a cyclist on the sidewalk on Finch Ave West. While the police identified the cyclist, Okamoto says no charges have been laid.

She addressed the committee Wednesday and told councillors police need to do more to prevent accidents like the one that claimed her father’s life.

“Police are saying you can kill someone as a cyclist, and get away with it,” she said.

Okamoto wants cyclists to be licensed, but also said that, as a cyclist herself, she wants to see more bike lanes on busy suburban streets like Finch so that riders are encouraged to bike on the road instead of the sidewalk.

“On Finch Ave. West, it’s really dangerous, and cyclists resort to riding on the sidewalk,” she said.”We need more bike lanes on those major thoroughfares.”

Councillor David Shiner, who sits on the works committee, also spoke in favour of bike lincences. “There has to be something in place to know that cyclists have been educated,” he said.

Dan Egan, the city’s manager of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, says it’s too early to determine what the staff report will recommend, but don’t expect licensing to be in the cards. The city has drafted reports on bike licences before and determined the cost of setting up the required bureaucracy is prohibitively high.

“We’ve looked at every other city that’s tried or looked at this. No one in North America is doing this,” he said. “There aren’t any good models out there.”

And while Egan believes there is a legitimate concern about cyclists running over pedestrians, he suggests the issue isn’t as serious as other conflicts on our roads.

According to city data, there are only a handful of serious collisions between cyclists and pedestrians every year. By comparison, there are roughly 1,100 annual collisions between cyclists and motor vehicles, and 2,000 between pedestrians and motor vehicles.

This isn’t the first time the councillors have targeted sidewalk cycling. The public works committee first recommended tackling the issue last January.

It’s already illegal to ride bikes on Toronto sidewalks, but critics say the rule is rarely enforced.

Until late last year, there were seven different bylaws against sidewalk cycling covering different parts of the city. The bylaws, which were relics from pre-amalgamation days, have since been harmonized, but no fine has been set. Egan says the city is hoping to set the penalty for riding on the sidewalk at around $65.

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