Morning Brew: Entertainment District a Hot Spot for Assault, Sarah Thomson Enters Mayoral Race, Movenpick Marche to Return to Yonge St., One Marathon Too Many, Neighbourhood Feud in Orillia

You don't need training to walk, because you don't put anyone else at risk. You do need licensing to drive, because you are operating a 3000lb projectile that destroys property and maims or kills people so routinely it isn't news. Pedestrian collisions aren't the ones costing Ontario <a href="http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/orsar/orsar06/foreword_8.shtml";>$9.1 billion a year</a>.

As for training, it's a one-time hoop to jump through. People adapt their behavior to the limit of what feels safe, which means routine speeding and gliding through stop signs. And drivers are safe. It's everyone else in the city that's in danger.

Pedestrians are being 'educated' because they are the most convenient to reach, standing on densely packed downtown street corners rather than spread out in speeding metal cages.

I won't be skipping training my kids how to be a safe pedestrian in the city merely because they don't pose a threat to others. They need the training to protect themselves, Antony.

Pedestrians in this city do need a little education - that I'm certain of. You travel to Paris or NYC and pedestrians there know when to walk out onto a roadway, traffic light or no traffic light. With Paris, pedestrians even have to contend with the thousands of scooters and motorcycles on the road that weave in and out of moving traffic, but traffic fatalities there are almost non existent. Pedestrians need help here.

Whatever happened to "When crossing a street, look left, then right, then left again?" I still follow that old grade-school rule, cross at intersections and crosswalks, even as I see countless pedestrians just darting out into moving traffic.

Then again, I don't really want to check out early because I was too stupid or oblivious to my surroundings.

I'd love nothing more than to take this opportunity to rag on Toronto drivers, but I'm finding it hard to defend my fellow walkers after seeing a young woman walk into the side of a Viva bus yesterday - no cellphone, no iPod, no distraction. I'm not sure there is any solution to this problem if people can't see a 10 foot blue wall 2 feet in front of them.

We all love our anecdotal evidence, but there is plenty of blame to go around.

re: Mövenpick Marché
hope they learn something from "Food Republic" in HK & Singapore, night markets in Taipei, and Zen food court in Bangkok..that's how open food court should be done...not those crappy dishes they used to serve at Marche

i wonder what car insurance companies say about jaywalking.. will the pedestrians get any compensation?

Frankly, I'm glad Jaywalking is legal. The sad fact is most of the province was not designed with pedestrians in mind. We are not Europe. We will never be Europe. Everything is too spread out.

For example, if I was visiting my parents and wanted to cross the street I would have to walk a <b>MILE</b> to get to an intersection at which to cross. But thankfully combined with the spreading out part, we're also fairly low density which means traffic is quiet enough that allows us to cross streets between (hopefully adequate) gaps between cars.

Even here in Toronto, if I calculated how much longer it would take me per day to get to and from work if I didn't Jaywalk I'd be probably be looking at about 45 minutes extra per day.

Crossing the street in between lights is generally safe, especially when most lights tend to be timed to allow for gaps in traffic (primarily to allow people to get out of driveways and non signaled roads without fighting traffic I'm assuming)

I've never had any issues crossing mid block and in fact the only two times I've been hit by cars (just tapped both times thankfully) were at signaled intersections where I had the walk signal. One was a driver too focused on watching traffic to try to get in a right turn that they didn't notice the group of people starting to cross the road and the other was someone who rolled into the crosswalk as they were stopping because they weren't watching the road (they had their head down looking at something for whatever reason)

What -IS- stupid is jaywalking while distracted. Just like driving there are a lot of different variables at play. If you're talking on a cellphone, texting or are listening to music you might not notice the car pulling out of the driveway nearby or you might not notice the guy driving far too quickly to escape unharmed.

However, assuming the driver isn't distracted there is no reason why they shouldn't see this person crossing the road and slow down to ensure they don't hit them.

So while it is partially the pedestrian's fault for not paying complete attention, you know the driver couldn't have been paying full attention in some of these situations as well and so not only is it partially their fault, but also ends up being concerning as hell.

You could easily replace that pedestrian with another car, perhaps stopped to turn left and you'd still end up with an awful result, but at least in that case, both parties are likely to walk away unscathed.

so that old lady that ran the red light on martin grove and killed the lady who was obeying the law; and crossing the crosswalk when she was supposed to. it was the victims fault that she was killed?

Walking is a right...driving a vehicle is a luxury/privilege.

As a pedestrian in the downtown core, I have to watch out for other pedestrians!!! Texting/Crackberrying while walking right into you (most times without a word of "sorry" - someone actually called me a bitch for bumping into them?!?!?); plugged into an MP3 player so they can't hear someone say "Excuse me" to get by them/get off the bus or subway; walking 3 people side-by-side on the sidewalk forcing others to walk onto the roadway to get by...

i now purposely crash into people who are texting and walking at the same time..i would not avoid them, i just walk right into them and bang..let them suffer..

I'm with you Jack. I most often just stop and let them walk into me, they are so shocked when it happens. And than they usually mumble sorry and off they go, head down back to the texting. Unreal.

@ Antony:

Oh please. You make it sound like cars are running amok like packs of rabid dogs. Yes, Mr. Self-Righteous, people do adapt their behavior to the limit of what feels safe... yet you don't seem to realize that that concept applies to pedestrians just as much as drivers. As in pedestrians who get used to simply stepping into the road wherever and whenever they feel like it will become complacent and put themselves at risk of getting run over. Funny how so many people are pointing out that jaywalking is legal in Ontario, yet no one is pointing out that that's obviously part of the problem.

Bottom line, a disturbingly large number of people out there are idiots and/or oblivious to the world around them, whether they're walking or driving. We've all seen plenty of bad drivers, but the guy who walked in front of a streetcar while on his cellphone (or the woman last year who walked into the side of a truck while on hers) just goes to show you that people don't get smarter or more aware as soon as they're on foot.

Regardless, this recent rash of pedestrian deaths is just a freak anomaly that doesn't actually mean anything out of the ordinary. Notice from the map that they're scattered all over the place, none were in the downtown core, and only half were even in Toronto itself.

Any of you who are suggesting that people aren't being as careful as we used to be when crossing the street are living in some weird lala land. As a driver, cyclist & pedestrian, I can say, without doubt, that people aren't crossing streets as safely as we used to.

Just as drivers have become more careless and just as cyclists have become more aggressive, pedestrians have zoned out more. Everyone is to blame, not one place or another.

FYI: I'm guilty of it too, but have been trying to be more aware of what I'm doing for the last 1/2 year, just as I've been trying to be a more conscientious driver & cyclist.