Two days after announcing a new enforcement campaign aimed at cracking down on unsafe e-bike and e-scooter use in the city, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) issued a correction on an important piece of data.
Police initially said 16 people so far this year have been killed or seriously injured while operating micromobility vehicles — defined as small, low-speed vehicles.
In actuality, only nine people have been killed or seriously injured while using such vehicles.
“Please note that the original news release stated that a total of 16 people had been killed or seriously injured while operating a micromobility vehicle year-to-date. The correct number is 9 people,” reads a correction on the news release announcing the "Safe Rides, Safe Streets" enforcement campaign.
When asked about the reason for the error, a TPS spokesperson told TorontoToday that a data analyst made the mistake.
Police also revealed that of the nine killed or injured, only two of them were operating e-bikes or e-scooters. The rest were riding normal bicycles.
The Safe Rides, Safe Streets campaign is focused on ensuring people are using e-bikes, e-scooters and other micromobility vehicles in a safe and legal way by raising awareness and stepping up enforcement. The campaign does not explicitly mention bicycles.
Toronto police said it included normal cyclists in the statistic because bicycles are considered micromobility vehicles — but in a separate email, a spokesperson told TorontoToday that police are specifically “focused on e-vehicles” in this campaign.
All nine incidents involved collisions with a motor vehicle, police added, raising questions about why TPS is cracking down on unsafe e-bike use when most of the data involves cyclists and cars were involved in all of the accidents.
So far this year, one person has been killed while operating an e-bike or e-scooter and another was seriously injured. Five people have been killed on bicycles while two were seriously injured.
Police did not give additional details on the nine incidents, but media reports show that cyclists who were killed in collisions on April 8, April 30, July 25 and August 24 in Toronto were all struck by cars.
In two of the collisions, charges were laid against the driver of the motor vehicle. In the July 25 incident, the city laid bylaw charges against two companies that left a construction bin in the bike lane where a cyclist was killed.
Cyclist killed on Bloor just east of Avenue. Perhaps she was riding outside the bike lane anticipating having to go around a construction bin blocking the curb lane just before the intersection pic.twitter.com/qrujYIlSsC
— jnyyz 🚲 (@jnyyz) July 25, 2024
TPS told TorontoToday it is focusing on unsafe e-vehicle use “because of the increase in use of these types of vehicles across the city” and that the “continued use of these vehicles without the proper education and awareness causes a major concern to all road users.”
It’s important to note that while e-bikes are legal in the city of Toronto, e-scooters are currently banned. Despite this, they remain a popular mode of transportation on Toronto’s streets.
Jennifer Scott, the president of Gig Workers United, a union representing app-based delivery workers, says she sees the enforcement campaign as an equity issue and is worried about the over-policing of gig workers. Many gig workers use e-bikes and other electric micromoblity vehicles to deliver food and other goods.
“The vast majority of workers who do this work are racialized people. Many are migrants and newcomers and English is their second language,” Scott explained. “It’s intimidating to have police targeting you.”
Instead of stepping up enforcement of e-vehicles, Scott would like to see the city make roads safer for all users.
“At the end of the day, these problems are structural problems. Why are the roads not safe?” she pondered. “What is missing from the infrastructure in Toronto?”
Scott said she’s concerned about Premier Doug Ford’s plan to remove bike lanes on Bloor Street, University Avenue and Yonge Street. Instead of ripping them out, Scott wants to see the city build more bike lanes that are separated from motor vehicle lanes, as well as improve maintenance on the bike lanes that already exist.
“Those are the kinds of changes that actually need to happen for cyclists to be safer and for people to feel comfortable using the road,” she said.
Research indicates Scott’s argument could be right. A 2019 study that analyzed over 17,000 fatalities and 77,000 severe injuries over 13 years found that protected bike lanes increased road safety for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
In major U.S. cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago, fatal crash rates dropped by 38 to 75 per cent after bike lanes were added.
