asmac

Apparently Toronto Police haven't got the memo that bicycles are vehicles.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013...ng_policy.html

ItsJustMe

Yeah, not sure how they figure a dooring can possibly occur if a vehicle is not in motion. If the bicycle isn't moving, there's no dooring.

Brandonub

That's pretty enlightening as to the attitude this individual takes. I'm sure they have no problem, as a department, tracking all kinds of trivial nonsense, and plenty of man-hours to issue parking tickets, but tracking a type of accident that causes death is completely irrelevant to him. This man should either be retrained or released immediately.

SpecialJ

Toronto Police Services Board chair is now pressuring the Police to track dooring:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013...ng_policy.html

turbo1889

Although I most certainly agree that police refusing to treat accidents involving bicyclists as vehicle accident is a breach of the public due trust for equal protection, I also think that if you are cycling in the door zone it isn't entirely the other guys fault if you get doored. Dooring is rather simple and easy to avoid by simply not riding that far to the right and not riding in the door zone. I do realize that there are some situations where there are bicycle lanes built right in the door zone combined with state or local ordinances that require riding in the bicycle lane in which cases the portion of the blame that would normally rest on the cyclist shoulders for the accident by choosing to ride in the door zone instead shifts to the shoulders of those that put the bicycle lane in the door zone and made a law saying bicyclists have to ride there but even then there is usually a safety exception in some of those laws that a good cyclist will take advantage of if the bicycle lane is in the door zone.

volosong

Note to self: Avoid riding a bicycle in Toronto.

mconlonx

Saw someone get doored just the other day. Cambridge MA, Hampshire St., just in front of S&S Deli in back of Inman Sq. Commuter just riding along, *wham* doored.

Commuter was riding in the bike lane, bike lane is just to the left of parallel parking, driver opened door w/o looking. Plenty of angry cycle commuters giving the driver what-for. No cop showed up.

turbo1889

I suspect (but have no proof) that someone in the local bureaucracy doesn't want doorings in bike lanes built in the door zone on the public record because it is too public of a demonstration of the fallacy of how they are setting up their bike lanes and requiring cyclists to use them even though they are dangerous. Just my personal suspicions, but then life experience has made a rather cynical person out of me.

B. Carfree

Bingo. No data means no provable problem.

dynaryder

nail -> head

Anything to keep the stats low.

atbman

"Dooring is rather simple and easy to avoid by simply not" opening the vehicle door without looking.

DX-MAN

I think it's safe to say that 95% of doorings happen on the streets (can't totally cancel out parking lots); soooo, vehicular status aside, any incident that involves damage to private property WHILE ON PUBLIC PROPERTY, not to mention physical injury, comes under the purview of the local police. WHO ARE THEY TO DECIDE IT'S NOT WORTHY OF TRACKING?

turbo1889

Yes, that is most certainly true as well, as I stated a bicyclist who of his/her own free will choice rides in the door zone and then gets doored is partially responsible for the incident. The other part of the blame, most likely the larger part, is obviously on the knuckle head who can't be bothered to look to see if anyone is coming before opening the door (good way to get a door torn off your rig and potentially injured yourself by the way if its not a bike but a car that hits the open door so even if there is no cyclist present it is still a stupid thing to do).

mconlonx

See, the thing is, the bugnutz-stupid regarding that particular quote is that they actually do track days of sunshine...

https://www.currentresults.com/Weathe...al-average.php

Dchiefransom

The people that run the police tell the police to track dooring and they refuse? There's a quick solution to that.

asmac

Agreed... we need a new police services board asap!

asmac

Nothing is perfect. At least no one shoots at you... well, unless you unzip your pants and wave a swiss army knife around. But seriously, I think you'd probably be ok.

atbman

But part of the problem in modern traffic is that cyclists may find themselves forced/bullied into the door zone by highway design and the way drivers behave on a particular stretch of road. But I do agree with you that it is unwise to ride in the door zone.

Of course, if cyclists received proper training... e.g the LAB course they might have the confidence as well as the knowledge to avoid such a position

genec

and of course if drivers received proper training, heck bike lanes would not even be demanded by the public... We would all properly share the roads.

nelson249

Toronto Police Service Constable Clint Stibbe seriously needs to be reassigned to bicycle patrol. Pronto.

turbo1889

For low speed roads I most certainly agree whole heartily, but for high speed roads especially narrow ones with points of limited visibility created by crests of hills and corners bike lanes can be useful. It's just that where bike lanes or actually useful for legitimate safety concern for cyclists they hardly ever put them there and where they are dangerous for cyclists and only there to "get cyclists out of the main traffic lanes" so that motorists don't have to share is where they do put them. Quite frankly if speeds on a roadway are low enough to allow for safe road side parking then there is absolutely no need for a bike lane anyway since the speed differential between cyclists and motorists is insignificant. If motorists can stop and wait for another car in front of them to parallel park then they can certainly drive five to ten miles per hour slower at most while behind a cyclist taking the lane in front of them.



If he really is as clueless about cycle traffic as he appears to be, he would probably ride salmon and/or night-ninja and/or ride on the sidewalk without yielding to and respecting pedestrians when in their space, better give him some significant training first before you let him loose on a bike himself. But, yes, provided you educated him first that isn't a bad idea. A year of pounding pedals as a sustained assignment would probably make a cycle advocate out of him.

Daniel4

I don't expect the Toronto Police to uphold the law as long as Rob Ford is the Mayor. He's been caught with distracted driving three times, twice on the cell phone and once reading. His brother openly said he'll run over cyclists in a heartbeat to save 10 minutes of commuting. The police chief won't exonerate the Mayor in the Video Crack Scandal but won't comment on the investigation either. All departments have had 5 to 10% budget cuts but the police budget gets 11% increase. And don't get me started about the shootings.

Daniel4

update: a Toronto cycle police gets the door prize - urges police dept to resume tracking.

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This is almost how Churchill felt after Pearl Harbour.