Prominent social justice activist Taylor Flook had a terrible cycling accident, but she is using the incident to spark change in Toronto for better bike safety.
If you’re like me, you have friends who bike all the time, and you probably worry about them when they hit the road as I do.
Taylor Flook was cycling to work on August 23, 2013, when she had a serious cycling accident that caused her to be hospitalized with a broken nose and fractured teeth. Here is a link to a fundraising campaign to help support Flook in paying her medical costs and missed work from the accident.
What basically happened is that the wheels from Flook’s bike got caught in the subway tracks at Bathurst Street and Dupont Street and she crashed.
Flook blames the accident on the lack of bike lanes in Toronto and is also advocating for integrating rubber into street car tracks (this does not affect the streetcar’s passage over them but allows bike tires to ride more smoothly over them).
According to critics and Toronto car enthusiasts, to add two-way bike lanes means removing a lane of traffic, causing gridlock for drivers. And lest we let the “Little Bike People,” as described by Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, control the road.
Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, has already declared his war on cyclists, or war of cars defeating cyclists in a battle for Toronto’s streets, hearts and minds.
He advocated for the removal of the dedicated bike lane on Jarvis Street, which cost the city $300K. The lane was replaced with a dedicated lane on Sherbourne Street instead. The move saved Toronto car commuters a total of two minutes.
It’s not that Toronto doesn’t have big plans for itself to be a more cycle-friendly city, it’s just this dream only seems to live in the heads of the cyclists brigade and not the cavalry of cars.
Back in 2011, Toronto council pushed through new plans for the bikeway network but there has been little in the way of actual construction or progress. Some of its features were to include install cycle tracks on Bloor Street East, from Sherbourne to Broadview, in 2011; install cycle tracks on Wellesley in 2012; “assess the feasibility of separated bike lanes on Adelaide Street and/or Richmond Street;” install cycle tracks on Harbord Street and Hoskins Avenue next year.
Until then, Toronto’s streets are not very safe for cyclists, who for the most part, don’t want any part of Rob Ford’s rhetoric regarding the war on cars/cyclists.
In an open letter to Rob Ford posted on Flook’s blog the same day as the accident when she was still in the hospital and posted on the Media Co-op’s website, she writes about the unbelievable kindness she received from motorists who witnessed the accident and waited with her until the ambulance arrived and pleaded for some compassion from Toronto’s mayor.
“I arrived at the hospital and was waiting for a bed to become available, and as I lay there, still bloody, with my tooth in a rubber glove beside me, I thought of your words. I thought of the fact that according to you what happened to me was my fault and that if I had died, as many have before me, that you wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep and you would have blamed me, simply for trying to bike in this city.”
Flook goes on to advocate for better safety measures for cyclists: “I am still recovering, but I will be getting back on the road. This has not deterred me from wanting to get around this city on bicycle; most of the time it is a healthy and environmentally friendly option to get around and I urge you to try it. If you did I’m sure you would see how badly more bike lanes and better education for drivers is needed so you can get around safely. That Toronto Sun journalist certainly did.”
“Respect for cyclists isn’t a new idea. Many cities around the world have far better infrastructure for cyclists than Toronto does. It has been proven that better infrastructure for cyclists lowers accident rates and improves driving time for cars as well,” she writes.
I’m speaking to her on the phone tonight as she recovers from her injuries, though she is eager to return to her life.
Her near death experience has changed her feelings towards cycling in Toronto, as she sees other cyclists who are still very confident as they ride, perhaps because they have yet to suffer a serious accident or even a near miss, which has made her understand the fragility of our human body and life in general.
Flook also wants the city to stop pitting cyclists against cars. She reminded me that she feels Rob Ford, does a “great disservice when he yells that he understands car people and their supposed war of bikes. I was extremely impressed with the outpouring of caring I received at the time of the accident and in my recovery. Car people are not at war with bike people, not at all, we care for each other and people jumped out of their cars when they saw me crash. We just have to learn to share the road safely and show a basic compassion for each other.”
If only Rob Ford could put down his civic battle axe and show some basic compassion for all citizens of Toronto, regardless of how they choose to commute. Everyone deserves safety and dignity.
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