Toronto is a city divided. Some of it built for cars, some for people, the problems occur when the two come together, which they do at every turn.

But after a Grade 7 student was hit by a car on her way to school on Wilson Ave. last week, Torontonians were reminded yet again just how deep the divide runs. Happily the girl wasn’t seriously hurt, but the incident was a wake-up call.

“The kids have to cross six lanes of traffic on Wilson,” explains Paolo Peloso, principal of Pierre Laporte Middle School, where the girl is one of more than 400 pupils. “The street is really wide. Kids aren’t the only ones who have problems. Yesterday I saw three seniors struggling to get across Wilson, some had walkers. It’s intimidating.”

Typically, lanes on a major artery such as Wilson vary in width from 3 to 3.5 metres (10 to 11.5 feet); that makes it somewhere between 18 and 21 metres (59 to 69 feet) from side to side. As a result, this stretch of Wilson west of Jane St. functions much like a highway. The fact it is wide, straight and relatively unencumbered gives drivers permission to go as fast as they can. The design of the street tells them the road is theirs and that nonvehicular users — namely pedestrians — don’t belong. Traffic signs may indicate otherwise, but they’re easily ignored.

“Up here, the car is king,” says local Councillor Maria Augimeri (Ward 9 York Centre). “The speed limit is 50 kilometres an hour, but I often see people going 70. The roads are unsafe.”

To make matters worse, northbound cars on Petherhill Ave. must turn left (west) or right (east) at Wilson just across from Pierre Laporte — whose pupils are aged 11 to 13. Southbound drivers coming from the north, where Petherhill continues as Julian Rd., must also turn left or right. Naturally, everyone’s in a rush, and, well, the kids are in the way.

It doesn’t help either that Humber River Regional Hospital also opened recently across the road from the school. That adds another 3,300 people to the mix. Then there’s then the newly completed Forensic Services and Coroner’s Complex on Wilson just west of Keele. In anticipation of the changes and resulting intensification, the TTC increased bus service on Wilson. And let’s not forget the other four or five schools in the area. There’s even a new subway station in nearby Downsview Park that will soon go into service.

Suddenly, Wilson is a busy pedestrian zone. But aside from a bit of finger-wagging signage, little has been done to recognize the new reality; pedestrians are still interlopers. Yet Peloso can’t even get a crossing guard for his school; the police, who administer the program, already face a waiting list of 49 schools. This is a clear indication of how lightly the city and its police force take pedestrian safety.

On top of that, Toronto’s transportation department has a history of opposing traffic lights that goes back at least three decades. Even after a teenager was killed in the ’90s at Keele and Wilson, city staff refused a neighbourhood request for traffic lights. The city judges each request according to a set of criteria whose rigid conditions more often than not aren’t met. Despite objections from some suburban representatives, council has had to overrule the bureaucracy on several occasions.

“Every time staff refuses a request for traffic lights, it becomes a political football,” Augimeri explains. “Stop signs are a political issue. Traffic is a political issue. Traffic lights are a political issue. It makes me angry that parents have to fight against the city to ensure the safety of their kids. What’s the life of a child worth?”

The police seem in no rush to help; Peloso won’t hear from them about his crossing guard until next year at the earliest. After all, he’s just one of dozens of principals waiting for the force to get off its collective butt and attend to the safety of the city’s kids.

Little wonder many parents now drive their sons and daughters to school. That in turn worsens congestion around the school and the larger neighbourhood. Through it all, drivers who use Wilson remain largely impervious to the huge changes happened along their route. They carry on regardless, though their habits now endanger lives.

Christopher Hume’s column appears weekly. He can be reached at jcwhume4@gmail.com