magnumpi

When drivers in Toronto run over and kill kids walking to school it ain't no wonder they all want to drive them there.

Police crack down on dangerous driving in Toronto neighbourhood after Georgia Walsh, 7, struck and killed


Teenage girl struck and killed by truck in Toronto’s west-end - Toronto | Globalnews.ca

KuroKuro

My route to work is through a residential area in Burnaby, slap bang between an elementary and secondary school... The fact that there are no pavements is actually one of the few things I hate about Canada. It just all seems so un-pedestrian friendly.

And of course it's a vicious cycle. Because it's dangerous to walk along the roads, more people drive. Because more people drive, it's even more dangerous to walk. I hate when I've worked overtime & have to walk along an unlit road at 9pm at night. I'm not sure if getting a bike would make things better or worse.

Zoe Bell

I read a story about Calgary ( I think) where local Councillors had surveyed the population to ask what could be done to encourage more people to walk.
apparently the most popular answer was "build side walks"

FFS what is wrong with these people?

I must admit , being spoiled living downtown, I didn't realise that there was such a sidewalk shortage in Canada

Oakvillian

I suppose one advantage of living in the little bit of suburban sprawl that I occupy is that we have decent sidewalks on almost every street built since the late 1970s. Which is most of this part of town. That, at least, makes it a little safer for pedestrians (the town even has a fleet of mini snowploughs that does a reasonable job of clearing the sidewalks in winter).

It doesn't alter the idiocy around schools, though. Thankfully, I'm at least two steps removed from most of it: I leave the house well before school start time in the morning, and my kids travel by school bus anyway. But SWMBO made the mistake of joining a Facebook group for families of kids at the school (there are some boundary changes afoot in which we do have an interest...) which is full of the bleatings of driving vs walking arguments. Oh my, there are some indefensible arguments on there.

Fundamentally, in this school district every child who lives more than about a kilometer away from school (it might be a bit further, but still not much more than ten minutes' walk) is entitled to bus transportation. Anyone closer than that is expected to arrive under their own steam. We know a lot of families who walk, even in the most unpleasant weather; equally there are a number who drive even ridiculously short distances to the school if there's even a whiff of rain or the temperature is "too hot" or "too cold." The school has a small driveway, which is not available for private vehicles at dropping-off time because that's where the school buses pull in. But there are apparently enormous conflicts and arguments about parking (and turning - a couple of local streets are culs-de-sac) amongst the parents of precious snowflakes.

The school won't do anything because it's not on their property. The Town won't do anything as most of the side streets have only the town's basic restrictions on parking, which are mostly not being broken. The police won't do anything unless a traffic violation (or worse) is committed.

I like AC's approach. I'm sure, given the affluent catchment area, there must be a few lawyers amongst the parent cohort who could take the same line with the school and the town. I would be unsusprised if that elicited the same sort of response from the local police, at the behest of the school board and local councillors...

Zoe Bell

Interesting, working as I do at a school where a large portion of our parents fall into the "lawyers etc" category, I get to see it from the other side.

One of the reasons I suspect I am no longer asked to cover the phones in reception is my lack of sympathy for the local populous moaning about the traffic/noise/presence of a school in their exclusive neighbourhood

"this school has been here over 100 years, you haven't, you kind of knew what you were getting into when you brought the house" isn't an acceptable response apparently !

I have seen drivers in our parking lot ( I don't say parents because it could well be the Chauffeur) hit our security guards with their cars on purpose.

Apparently " I pay your wages" so that's ok.

Almost Canadian

One doesn't have to be a lawyer. I would imagine something like, "When a child is injured, I will inform their parents of this very conversation and I will inform them that I will be willing to give evidence to support the fact that the school, and you, were informed of the situation today and chose to do nothing about it."

Whether the Court will care about the lack of action is, to a large extent, irrelevant. The point is to convince the principal that they will be involved in the litigation.

Pizzawheel

Oakvillian

It's amazing, isn't it, how the vaguest hint of involvement in litigation is enough to spur people into action? I remember years ago, I must have been in my early teens, my dad (very much not a lawyer) got very frustrated with the local council, who had put a Tree Preservation Order on a number of local trees including a sycamore at the bottom of our garden - which dropped steeply downhill and backed onto a road. The tree was obviously unwell, and the council was dragging their heels on lifting the order so it could be taken down. A very politely worded letter was sent, to the effect that "I have made you (the individual officer and the council as a whole) aware of the situation, and your failure to act seems to me an acknowledgement of negligence should the tree fall and injure somebody on the public highway, which I shall not hesitate to repeat in court if the need arises." Not only was the preservation order lifted, but the council sent its own tree surgeons to take the thing down within a week

ExKiwilass

dang, you're good. This is great.

ExKiwilass

Done

I just emailed: the traffic department, the Mayor's office and the principal and told them of the situation and that i was offically informing them of the issue and that if any shizz goes down, I will be forwarding the email to any injured party to be used as evidence in litigation. we'll see what happens now.

ExKiwilass

you should really try and capture that on camera. that's terrible

Zoe Bell

oh we have CCTV camera coverage of the parking lot. as I said though it works the other way, lots of high income , entitled parents who are lawyers themselves, so nothing gets done.

<legal disclaimer, the opinions voiced in the post belong entirely to the poster and do not reflect her employers official stance whatsover in that as much as she bitches about it, the poster would like to keep her job>

dbd33

<smug>

Suburban problems. Those of us who sent our children to urban schools had no such issues. All the children walked there, from home, or from the subway.

There's nowhere to park outside and, anyway, if you stop on that corner, the meth-crazed traffic light beggars jump in your car just ahead of the ungendered prostitutes.

</smug>

Howefamily

I feel even more grateful that I can live outside in suburbia and not have these problems either, it's awesome!

Pizzawheel

And of course, once the "ride to school" kids (I've always called them amoebas) and "walk to school" kids get released into the same real world environment, one tends to fare better with the meth-crazies and un-gendered hookers than the other.

I still recall a buddy from a country village whipping his wallet out to check how much cash he had for the night out on Oxford Road, Manchester.