As people continue to die on Toronto’s streets in alarmingly high numbers, there appears to be growing consensus among the public and local leaders that the city is in the midst of a road safety crisis.

But advocates say there are still persistent misconceptions about the causes of fatal pedestrian collisions that are distracting from implementing effective solutions.

“I think we’ve made scant inroads in the public’s understanding of ‘road violence,’ but not nearly enough,” said Jess Spieker, a spokesperson for Friends and Families for Safe Streets, and herself the survivor of a violent crash.

“I still hear a really disturbing amount of victim-blaming going on, which … is harmful and flagrantly false.”

In 2016, city council unanimously approved Vision Zero, its first comprehensive road safety plan. But despite increased funding, the strategy has made little progress toward the goal of eliminating traffic deaths, prompting council to reboot it as Vision Zero 2.0 in July.

As of Saturday, at least 24 pedestrians had died in 2019, including a 35-year-old woman who police said was killed in a hit-and-run in Scarborough on Friday night.

Spieker said she fears the current conversation still focuses too much on changing the behaviour of individuals, whether they be pedestrians or drivers, at the expense of aggressively pursuing fundamental changes that have been proven to reduce traffic deaths, such as physical redesigns of the road.

“Every day wasted by our political leaders on debating or spreading misinformation about the causes of road violence is a distraction from the action we need to take, which is building safe, complete streets,” she said.

Here are some myths about pedestrian safety that advocates and experts say aren’t backed up by the facts.

Smartphones are a leading cause of pedestrian injuries

The ubiquitous use of smartphones has stoked concern among policy-makers and some members of the public that pedestrians’ fixation with hand-held devices is causing them to walk into traffic.

The idea has become so popular that in October 2017 an Etobicoke Liberal MPP introduced a private member’s bill that would have prohibited pedestrians from crossing the road while using their smartphones or other electronic devices, under pain of a $50 fine for a first offence.

While some research, including a 2018 University of British Columbia study, indicates pedestrians distracted by their phones have less control over their walking behaviour, statistics compiled by Toronto police suggest the devices aren’t a primary cause of pedestrian fatalities.

Of more than 1,800 serious or fatal pedestrian collisions between 2007 and 2018 for which police recorded the condition of the victim, a little more than 20 per cent were described as “inattentive.” That figure includes different forms of distraction, and isn’t specific to phone use.

A majority of the victims in the collisions, or about 62 per cent, were in a “normal” condition, according to police.

Another statistic that appears to undermine the claim pedestrians’ phone use causes serious collisions is that victims are disproportionately older adults, a group that is less likely to own smartphones.

According to the police database, about 65 per cent of the roughly 370 pedestrians who were killed between 2007 and 2018 were at least 55 years old.

Jaywalking is always illegal

Although it’s commonly assumed pedestrians who dart across the street mid-block are breaking the law, that’s not always the case.

According to the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, if a road has a marked crossing for pedestrians it’s illegal to cross at any other portion of the street. However, the legislation doesn’t define how close the nearest marked crossing has to be to make it illegal for pedestrians to cross mid-block.

According to information posted by the City of Toronto, police have advised that 30 metres is the rule of thumb. If a crossing is at least that close, the act prohibits crossing mid-block.

Toronto’s Municipal Code, a collection of city bylaws separate from provincial legislation, dictates that where there is no crossing nearby, it’s legal for pedestrians to cross mid-block as long as they yield to oncoming traffic.

But the code specifies that no matter what the pedestrian does, drivers are still obligated to take “all due care to avoid a collision.”

Michael Black, co-founder of pedestrian safety advocacy group Walk Toronto, argues it makes sense for there to be flexibility in the rules, especially because the city “hasn’t provided safe, signalized controlled crossings at regular intervals on some of its most dangerous roads.”

Pedestrians are usually at fault if they get hurt

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In a 2015 study, Toronto Public Health analyzed police collision reports between 2008 and 2012, and found that in 67 per cent of crashes involving pedestrian injuries and fatalities, pedestrians had the right of way.

In about 19 per cent of cases, pedestrians didn’t have the right of way, and in 14 per cent the right of way wasn’t determined.

The results of a similar Star analysis were less conclusive, but still found pedestrians had a right of way in a plurality of serious collisions.

The analysis used similar methodology to the Toronto Public Health study, but looked only at police data for crashes that caused major or fatal injuries to pedestrians, and covered a longer time period, between 2007 and 2018.

The Star analysis showed that in about 45 per cent of serious or fatal pedestrian collisions, the pedestrian had the right of way. In about 25 per cent, the pedestrian didn’t have the right of way, while the remaining 30 per cent the right of way couldn’t be determined.

Serious collisions mainly occur during bad driving conditions

While analysis from several sources has established pedestrian collisions increase around late November when daylight hours grow shorter, crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians are by no means confined to periods when driving conditions are poor.

The police statistics show three-quarters of serious pedestrian collisions between 2007 and 2018 happened when the road conditions were dry, and more than half, or 54 per cent, occurred during daylight hours.

Only about 17 per cent occurred in periods outside of daylight hours when the road conditions were listed as either wet or affected by slush, snow or ice.

“When driving conditions are bad, especially in the winter, you do get minor fender benders, but (drivers) are going slowly and they’re very observant,” Black said.

Under more favourable conditions, drivers may “get this false sense of security and they relax. That’s when things can happen.”

Reducing traffic congestion improves road safety

Mayor John Tory has emphasized two main goals for his administration’s road policies: easing traffic congestion, and making streets safer through Vision Zero, which he has backed at council.

At times he’s argued the two efforts go hand in hand, and that fighting gridlock will also lead to safer streets.

“I think the congestion we have in this city makes people often drive in a way that is unsafe, because they quickly try to pull around traffic when somebody pulls over just to get a coffee,” he said in a Jan. 14 interview with CP24.

Raktim Mitra, an associate professor at Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, said he’s not aware of any literature linking traffic congestion with injuries to pedestrians or other road users, and recent research “indicates that the severity of pedestrian injury is statistically lower in congested conditions.”

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr