Pedestrians in Toronto are losing their lives in record numbers. So far this year, 38 have been killed by cars. Of course, there will be howls of outrage and demands for change.

The police, ever useless, will advise pedestrians to wear brightly coloured clothing and launch yet another downtown blitz aimed at jaywalkers.

The half-mayor will remind us that the streets belong to cars, buses and trucks. In this case, though, our chief magistrate will be right. He shouldn’t be but that’s the way it is in this city.

The experts will remind us that the pedestrian tally always goes up at this time of year. Those dark early mornings and evenings make it so hard for drivers to see where they’re going, or if someone’s crossing the road ahead.

Who can blame them? The fact that 70 per cent of pedestrians are in the right when they’re killed just goes to show how difficult we have made it for drivers. Of course, they’re all in a rush — why else would they be driving? — and nothing is more important than that they should get where they’re going on time — then suddenly . . . there’s some kid, some mother with a stroller or some little old lady dead ahead. Just because the light’s green makes no difference. You’ve gotta be quick to make those left turns, and, well, sometimes you just can’t see what’s on the other side of a speeding automobile.

It’s even worse for truck and bus drivers. They can hardly see what’s going on beside and behind them. They’re much too big to worry about that sort of stuff.

Let’s be honest, it’s time for Toronto to get serious about the problem and ban pedestrians once and for all. Just get ’em off the streets.

The sidewalks are theirs — except when the police need a place to park their cars — but crossing the street should be stopped, outlawed. Yes there’ll be a lot of whining, but it’s for their own good.

If pedestrians have to cross the road, let them find some other way that doesn’t include slowing or endangering drivers. Just how inconvenient is it to have to stop and hang around until the cops show up after you’ve run someone over? Many drivers are in such a rush; they don’t have the time to wait. They have no choice but to run.

As for all those crosswalks, they’re nothing but a nuisance, a dangerous nuisance. Toronto is already plagued with stoplights, which are always red, so let’s do away with these pedestrian crossings.

It’s not as if the city would lose anything by clamping down on aggressive ambulation; everyone knows pedestrians contribute little to the city’s economy. It’s drivers who spend the money. That’s why we have malls, big box stores and power centres. What more do we need?

Stopping the annual pedestrian killing spree would require a huge cultural shift, a sea change of attitude similar to what happened with smoking decades ago. But there are more drivers than smokers and the dependency runs deeper. Whole cities have been designed and built to accommodate cars. We have too much invested to turn back now. It’s easier to get rid of pedestrians instead.

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Rather than walking, they should learn to drive and get a car. Not only would that make them safer, it would improve traffic and keep things flowing. Pedestrians have no place on the streets of Toronto; it’s time to accept that and move on — in our cars.