Prohibiting cycling on Wychwood Ave. in response to a recent, tragic mishap makes as much sense as banning cars from a road after a fatal traffic accident. It makes none at all.

Yet that’s one option Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong has floated in the wake of Joseph Mavec’s death earlier his month. Mavec, 47, was cycling on Wychwood when his bike’s wheel jammed into a streetcar track, pitching him forward to the pavement.

The accident triggered an outcry, especially since this section of track had been out of service for decades. Some cycling advocates said it should have been torn up long ago. But the Toronto Transit Commission pointed out such removal requires extensive — and expensive — road reconstruction. It’s generally done only when a thoroughfare is due for repair. And simply paving over disused track could cause drainage and other problems.

Cycle Toronto, a biking advocacy group, wants the city to do a better job of warning people about streetcar dangers and has called for a comprehensive review of the safety hazard posed by Toronto’s tracks. That makes sense. A measure to have city staff conduct just such a review is to go before the public works committee next month.

In the meantime committee chair Minnan-Wong has come up with another idea: Forbid cycling on the road at Wychwood. That’s odd, coming from the city’s point man in promoting biking. He also suggested a possible parking ban there, to give cyclists more space.

Toronto has more than 300 kilometres of streetcar track. Those lines pose a danger to cyclists who make the mistake of crossing at a shallow angle, running a risk that a wheel can become jammed. The Toronto Cyclists Handbook points out that tracks should be approached at a right angle, driving straight across them.

Simply focusing on a disused section of rail on Wychwood would do little to promote overall safety. It’s a non-solution to a serious problem. A public safety campaign that reminds riders of the risk would be the better way.

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