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Ordeal by gridlock
Traffic officer has advice for kinder, gentler rush hour by Bill Taylor
Admit it, you jaywalked across a busy downtown street as you headed home from work the other night. Or drove through a traffic light as it was changing to red. Or rode your bike the wrong way on a one-way street. The 30 seconds that you saved . . . what did you do with them? Driving downtown is no fun at the best of times. At the worst of times, the morning and evening rush hours, it can be hell on wheels, ordeal by gridlock. “People really need to be more patient, more courteous,'' says Constable Rob Rodriguez - Chi-Chi to his friends - a traffic response officer in 52 Division. “Accept that your drive is going to be a little bit longer.'' The home-bound traffic is building. Rodriguez has just reluctantly ticketed a woman who made a right turn in her station wagon off Queen St. on to Church St. without even slowing for the red light. First she insists she stopped, then she insists the light was green. “It's a pretty heavy fine, $185,'' he says. “I hate this part. I always feel bad. Believe it or not, we have a conscience.” But she has to get the message. She honestly thinks she made a right turn on a green light. Our light was green as we were coming to the intersection. Her light was red. No question. “I told her, `You'll have an opportunity to dispute the charge if you want.' '' Rodriguez is writing up the incident in his notebook in case he has to go to court. “I can't give her a caution,'' he says, frustration in his voice. “She doesn't even realize what she did. She swears up and down it was green.'' This is what makes up 95 per cent of a downtown traffic cop's 10-hour working day: Cruising the streets, trying to keep everyone's wheels turning and their tempers unfrayed. “Enforcing the Highway Traffic Act is not always the way to deal with the problem,'' says Rodriguez. Sometimes a warning, a word of advice, even just the presence of a police car work better than a ticket. The area covered by 52 Division extends between Spadina Ave. and Jarvis St., from Queens Quay to where the railway tracks cross the city north of Dupont Ave. Hazards include kamikaze bicycle couriers and drivers with a stick-shift in one hand, a cellular telephone in the other, their attention anywhere but on the road and the steering wheel left to its own devices. “More people get into accidents because of cell phones . . .'' says Rodriguez. “Whichever hand they're holding the phone in, they're oblivious to that side.” “If you're directing traffic and you're waving at the guy to go, he might be looking right at you but he's not focused. I've had to walk over and bang on the fender to get his attention.'' Even the most considerate motorist is under strain by the evening rush hour. “People have worked all day, they're tired, they want to get home,'' says Rodriguez. “And people who are in a rush and have a destination at the front of their mind are the worst drivers, definitely. They're focused on where they're going and they forget everyone else.” ``People have this idea with amber lights, `I can be the last one through.’ “ ``I pull them over and say, `You went through an amber light.' And they'll say, `Yeah?' Like, so what?'' After an incident, he says, “you talk to them sometimes and they can't believe what they've just done.” “I had one guy got into a melee on Bloor St. He wound up hitting two parked cars just because he didn't want to let this other car in front of him.” “The biggest thing is someone does something accidentally - they'll cut someone off or they won't signal - and rather than apologize, wave, admit they were wrong, nine times out of 10 they make a face or they give the hand gesture. “And the other guy's been having a bad day and . . .'' Rodriguez, 32, is a 12-year police veteran. He left the Toronto force to work in Ottawa, his hometown, but came back because “there wasn't enough action. I got bored.” “But when drivers cut you off in Ottawa, they actually apologize!'' That, he believes, is one of the keys to a kinder, gentler rush hour. Instead, what he mostly hears are excuses. “Not too many people will say, `Officer, I was wrong. I didn't see the guy, I was fiddling with the radio.' “ “You can see sometimes the person is really flustered and that's what caused the accident. I've talked to people and taken them back to what happened to them in the morning. Something at work set them off or their toast got burned and at the end of the day their mind was still on that and not on driving.'' David Wiesenthal, a social and environmental psychologist at York University, says the anonymity a car provides contributes to aggressive driving in the city. “It's unlikely you'll ever see the guy you just cut off or gave the
finger to again,'' he says. “In a small town, they'd recognize your car
and perhaps see you on a daily basis. Having these people as your neighbours
Bad driving in heavy traffic isn't so much a matter of saving time, he believes, as “a competitive thing. These people have to get ahead of you, even if it's just to stop at the next light.'' He also points to Toronto's multiculturalism. “So many people here learned to drive someplace else in the world. It's hard to say that there's a single driving culture. In other places, you know what the rules are informally.” ``Here . . . I guess the rules are there are no rules.'' Rodriguez, finally, is on a roll. He's stopped two drivers who do admit they were wrong. The first makes an illegal right turn off University Ave. on to Adelaide St. “He told me, `I know I did it. I didn't know where I was going. You're right.' “ “I said to him, `Well, I lost sight of you in the traffic and that saved you from a ticket.' '' The second driver turns on a red from Richmond St. on to Bay St. Again, he gets off with a caution. “He admitted it,'' says Rodriguez. ``But he said he thought it was the safest time for him to do it. “I said, `In some respects you're right. But a red's a red and you've got to stop.' '' There are jaywalkers everywhere. It's an offence but you can't ticket everyone. “I'm surprised more people aren't run over,'' says Rodriguez. “Especially on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in the entertainment district. They've maybe had a few drinks and they just walk right out. “But we don't get too many pedestrian accidents. God's looking after them.'' Cyclists are another matter. Riding on the sidewalk, ignoring traffic signals, riding the wrong way on a one-way street - all are offences. Many riders don't realize they're bound by the Highway Traffic Act. He sees a lot of accidents involving cyclists - especially couriers who take sometimes outrageous risks - and motor vehicles. ``You say, `Didn't you see the car coming?' And they say, `Yeah, but I had the right of way.' And you say, `Sure, but it's not him who's in hospital.' A courier cycles fast through a red light on Bay St. “But he saw me,'' Rodriguez says. “He waved, he knew he'd done it. Hopefully he'll stop for the next one.'' Visibility, he believes, is the best weapon in a traffic cop's arsenal. “You see a police car and it has an effect. When I'm off-duty and I see a police car, I drive differently!''
To the editor: I am writing regarding the portrayal of bicycle couriers in “Ordeal by Gridlock” (Toronto Star February 7, 2000). While the reporter described errant and illegal behaviour of virtually all road users he chose to apply derogatory labels to only one group - “kamikaze bicycle couriers.” Justification for labeling all messengers as “kamikazes” included an example of the “outrageous risks” that couriers take merely by maintaining their right of way. Rather than counseling couriers by telling “them” to get out of the way of cars, perhaps Constable Rodriguez could instead counsel motorists as to the rights of cyclists to public roads. As for actual courier behaviour, a study on the Safety of Bicycle Couriers prepared by the Societe de l'assurance automobile du Quebec concluded that couriers "have no more of a propensity for accidents per kilometre traveled than other bicycle riders." In addition, Ottawa’s Department of Engineering and Works “found no statistical evidence to support the opinion that bicycle couriers violate the Highway Traffic Act with greater frequency than recreational cyclists.” Not quite kamikazes. Let’s hope that in the future Star reporters base their judgements of
professions on facts rather than simply opportunities for alliteration.
Joe Hendry
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