It doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict someone will eventually be mowed down by a vehicle while standing on a traffic island in the middle of Lake Shore Boulevard.

About one year ago, I wrote about one of the most dangerous places for pedestrians in Toronto, the traffic island at Lake Shore and Bathurst Street.

Readers told me it was sometimes littered with the debris from westbound vehicles that mounted the island and crashed into the flimsy barriers at its east end.

Pedestrians crossing from one side of Lake Shore to the other often end up standing on the island because they can’t cross all six lanes of traffic before the light turns red.

The island is also a TTC stop; passengers stand on it while waiting for a streetcar, which only adds to the number of potential victims if a vehicle spins out of control and hits it.

Worse, the only barriers at the east end of the island, less than two metres from the crosswalk, are three bicycle locking rings. When it comes to slowing a speeding vehicle, they’re about as good as shaving cream.

Last October, I asked the city if it could put up something more effective. The answer? “Staff are currently looking to install a hazard marker and one or two bollards (depending on available space) at the tip of the median.”

Given the city’s commitment to Vision Zero, a much-touted action plan to reduce traffic-related fatalities and injuries, you’d think protecting people standing in the middle of six lanes of speeding traffic would be a priority.

Apparently not.

So it was no surprise to get a note last week from Ed Hanley, along with a photo that showed the bumper of a car on the island, next to three bicycle locking rings that had been bowled over.

“There has been another violent collision at the Lake Shore/Fleet/Bathurst pedestrian island, which once again destroyed the ridiculous bicycle racks the city keeps putting up to maintain a false sense of safety,” he said.

I went there and found the rear bumper of a car on the island, from a Toronto taxi, along with three knocked-down bicycle locking rings.

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If the city is serious about Vision Zero, or anything to improve safety for pedestrians, it is betraying its goals by failing to put up something — hell, anything! — to protect people marooned on the island.

STATUS: Given the latest collision, we asked transportation services if the city is OK with the status quo. The reply said that in July, city council approved the closure of one lane of Fleet Street, which is part of the Lake Shore-Bathurst intersection, to reduce the distance for pedestrians trying to get from one side of Lake Shore to the other. OK, but it will only slightly reduce the number of people standing on the island, especially since it's a TTC streetcar platform. It seems like lip service to the bigger problem — leaving people on a traffic island surrounded by speeding vehicles, with no protection except flimsy bike rings. It seems as if somebody will have to be run over before the city gets religion on the problem.