At the September 23rd, 2002 Toronto Cycling Committee (TCC) meeting the members of the TCC received a report on the activities of the Road and Trail Safety Ambassadors in 2002. This report outlined the activities of the 5 Ambassadors hired during the summer to promote bike use and bike safety. The report shows that, while they did what they could given the amount of money approved by City Council in the 2002 budget, there was a large reduction in the amount of work in these areas compared to when the Ambassador Program was fully funded in 2002 with 20 Ambassadors hired for the summer. The City had to admit recently that in not funding these safety and education programs it was ignoring two recommendations of the Coroner's report on Cycling Fatalities.

Two of the six major components in the Toronto Bike Plan are 'Promotion' and 'Safety and Education'. The Road and Trail Safety Ambassador program is intended as one of the key programs to carry out the mandate included in these two areas. They do this by attending community events, hosting their own bike safety events and staging media events. This year the number of events they were able to attend was reduced to 133 events compared to the 349 events they attended in 2000 when they had a full complement of staff. The number of people that received cycling safety or promotional information from the Ambassadors was 15,488 this year compared to 53,352 in 2000. The report also shows that they only got half the media coverage for cycling safety and promotion this year as compared to 2000.

You can read the the entire Road and Trail Ambassador's report which is posted online as a PDF file.download report(PDF)

The need for cycling safety and education promotion programs was seen in the Coronors Report of 1998 into cycling fatalities.(see see Coroner's Report) It contained several recommendations. Two of these relate to safety and education programs and the ambassadors in particular. One of which was Recommendation #6:

"That the City of Toronto identify on-going funding sources to expand cycling collision/injury prevention programs."

That the Toronto Police Service, in partnership with the municipal Cycling Committee, expand targeted enforcement and education efforts towards specific behaviours (cyclists and drivers) which cause collisions, and use the media to raise awareness of these behaviours.

In April of 2002 the Coroner's office wrote a letter to the City of Toronto to see what has been done to this point to implement these and all of the other recommendations(See Coroner's Letter. These particular recommendations fall under the responsiblility of the Urban Development Services. In the City's response to the coroner on July 22, 2002, Paula M. Dill, the Commissioner of Urban Development Services, on behalf of the City, had to admit that not much had been done since adequate money had not been allocated for these initiatives. (See City's response to the Coroner) The quote from the City's response is below.

The City of Toronto has had difficulty in identifying on-going funding sources to expand cycling collision/injury prevention programs. Prior to the Bike Plan, Urban Development Services invested $108,000 in its cycling safety programs. That amount was maintained in 2002 with no increases to accommodate new projects identified in the Bike Plan. Funding constraints will continue to impose limitations on the delivery of bicycle safety programs.

The Road and Trail Safety Ambassadors have also been an effective way to deliver bicycle safety programs to cyclists and drivers across Toronto. This program has been scaled back due to funding limitations. In the past, up to 20 summer students have been able to deliver bicycle safety programs (such as S.P.A.C.E and O.A.S.I.S.). This year only 5 students have been hired and, consequently, our response to demands for bicycle safety programming has been limited.

The reduction in the level of service is directly due to the sequence of decisions by the Executive Management Team, Planning and Transportation Committee, the Budget Advisory Committee and ultimately, City Council to reject a request for $168,000 which would have funded the Ambassador and other safety programs. (See previous article). As the budget process for the 2003 gets underway we hope that the Commissioner and the Councillors on the various budget committees take into account the Road and Trail Ambassador's report and the City's response to the Coroner as they allocate funds for next year.

If you want to let your local councillor know your thoughts on this issue you can call, write or e-mail your local councillor. You can find Councillor's contact information at the this link. You can also contact the Mayor, Mel Lastman. His contact information is here.