SETAC recently wrote to Ontario Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney, MPP Christine Hogarth and Premier Ford to support the TTC Board’s request to the Provincial Government to amend the Highway Traffic Act and permit the installation of enforcement cameras on streetcars to catch drivers who do not stop while doors are open for boarding and alighting.
Consider writing to Minister Mulroney and your MPP to push for better streetcar boarding safety enforcement. Visit TTCRiders.ca to fill in and submit an online letter template.
Dear Minister Mulroney, Ms. Hogarth, and Premier Ford:
The 501 streetcar on Lake Shore Boulevard West is a key and busy transit route in South Etobicoke. It serves multiple schools from primary to college, as well as public and private care homes for seniors and others requiring assistance. In addition, this is a key route for all residents of Humber Bay Shores, Mimico, New Toronto, and Long Branch to travel to their destinations: work, shopping, or recreation.
There are no safety islands in the Mimico and New Toronto section of the route, which includes 17 eastbound streetcar stops and 18 westbound streetcar stops. It is unfortunately routine to experience cars driving at full speed past open streetcar doors at stops–sometimes several times on one trip across Lake Shore. If nothing is done, it is inevitable that someone will be seriously hurt or killed because they are hit by motorists who are not following the law, whether accidentally or deliberately.
For these reasons, SETAC is fully supportive of the TTC Board’s resolution to set up cameras on streetcars to catch, and hopefully dissuade, motorists who put the lives of TTC riders at risk. SETAC requests that the Province fast-track the necessary legislation to allow this important safety concern for South Etobicoke residents to be addressed as quickly as possible.
Over a distance of less than 7kms, between Long Branch Loop and Park Lawn Road, the 501 streetcar serves the following educational institutions and seniors facilities directly:
· James S. Bell Middle School
· Twentieth Street Junior Public School
· Lakeshore Collegiate Institute
· Holy Trinity Catholic School
· Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School
· Humber College
· St. Josaphat Catholic School
· Seventh Street Junior Public School
· Second Street Junior Middle School
· David Hornell Junior Public School
· Lakeshore Lodge Long Term Care Home
· New Toronto Seniors Centre
· Storefront Humber
· Hearthstone by the Bay
Thank you,
The Members of SETAC
(South Etobicoke Transit Action Committee)
http://www.setac.ca