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| This ghost bike on Bayview was a memorial for Alan Tamane. |
A cyclist died today. More specifically, a woman in her 40s was hit by a truck driver making a turn as she was going south on Sterling at Dundas. It’s been described as a preventable collision, which makes it all the more sad. It seems one vehicle just lost sight of the other, and in these incidents the cyclist doesn’t win.
On Twitter, many people brought up Rob Ford’s unfortunate 2007 quotation that cyclists earn the consequences of biking on the road with cars:
“my heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s [cyclists’] own fault at the end ofthe day.”
It’s an unfortunate quote and one that Ford probably regrets in some respect. The thing is, I believe Ford when he says his heart bleeds in these incidents. He strikes me as a genuinely empathetic guy at times, like when he speaks emotionally about Jack Layton’s passing or talks about how he was motivated to turnaround the lives of young people through founding a football team.
It’s the latter that John Lorinc uses as a departure point to discuss Ford’s character and how that informs his policies. Lorinc writes that Ford should rightly be lauded for his efforts, particularly in taking hardscrabble youth, (half of whom live in public housing), and providing a positive space for them to grow. But Lorinc points out that here’s where the Fordian gulf exists: despite being motivated to help these individuals, he fails to make the connection between youth and social programs and their welfare.
The same is true for cyclists. I’m sure Ford is genuinely saddened at what happened today on Sterling St. To be clear, this death was not just the result of one person’s view or one particular policy or the lack of bike lanes in the area. Preventable cycling deaths are the result of a lack of collective action to connect the empathy we feel on days like today to meaningful policies and cultural shifts.
In doing so, we create the conditions for lasting change that addresses the underlying concerns. Hopefully then we don't lose sight of each other, our hearts can bleed a lot less, and incidents like the one today are more infrequent.
UPDATE: Her name was Jenna Morrison. A yoga teacher, she was married and had a three-year-old child and was expecting another.
UPDATE: Her name was Jenna Morrison. A yoga teacher, she was married and had a three-year-old child and was expecting another.
"I’m sure Ford is genuinely saddened at what happened today on Sterling St. To be clear, this death was not just the result of one person’s view or one particular policy or the lack of bike lanes in the area. Preventable cycling deaths are the result of a lack of collective action to connect the empathy we feel on days like today to meaningful policies and cultural shifts."
ReplyDeleteI'd agree--except that "one person" (the mayor) has a good deal of symbolic resonance, at the very least, when it comes to "collective action." Think, for example, of how his phrase "war on the car" still resounds, and the various emotions and arguments it still inspires. Ford did enact a "meaningful policy" when he became mayor by killing the car tax (a move I agree with, btw).
While you're right to be diplomatic about Ford's utterances, his ramblings actually do result in a pattern that continually shore up his stupidity. His 2007 comment about dead cyclists is NOT an isolated event; it should be taken in the context of all his others. In that light, we can better understand that this boob is in many perverse ways prescient: his form of "collective action"--ramblings that reflect an untutored and uncritical 'common sense' mind, married to political actions like getting rid of bike lanes--is indeed responsible for Jenna Morrison's death.
@anon Thanks for the comment, it's really great. I think you're right that politicians and citizens should take responsibility for the culture and climate they create, in this case a negative one for cyclist safety.
ReplyDeleteRather than blaming individuals like Ford, I think it's more productive to turn their emotion into something positive. By connecting the sadness and empathy for Morrison's death into a constructive conversation of cyclist safety, collective action can be geared towards positive change.
With that said, you're right that we need to recognize the political and cultural conditions that make the status quo untenable.