Advisory to Cyclists
Gerrard St East, between Coxwell Ave and Victoria Park Avenue.
***High potential for injury or death.***
The Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists has been made aware of sewer grates that pose a high potential of injury or death to cyclists along Gerrard St East between Coxwell Avenue and Victoria Park Avenue.
Sewer grates in this area have a gap running parallel to the curb, approximately 55cm from the curb. The gaps range in width from 25mm to 36mm, more than wide enough for a bicycle tire to get caught in. Sewer grates of the same design elsewhere in Toronto have gaps of 10mm. Please see photo below of the sewer grate design in question.
We already have one report of a cyclist getting his wheels caught in this gap in attempt to avoid a driver who swerved toward the cyclist. The cyclist was not injured in this incident but damage did occur to the bicycle.
High potential exists that these sewer grates will catch a bicycle's wheel and catapult the cyclist off the bike and into traffic causing injury or death. We urge extreme caution when riding in this area.
We demand that the City of Toronto immediately reduce the gap of these sewer grates or replace them.
If you are aware of sewer grates in other areas of the City with the same problem please phone Toronto Transportation at 416-338-9999 immediately and report it. We know the City's response time is painfully slow so please get the name of the person you spoke to, please forward this info to arc@respect.to
If you have been injured or suffered property damage by a defective sewer grate or any other road obstruction please follow this link to see what you can do. You must take certain actions within seven days of the occurrence.
http://respect.to/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=LegalInfo.HowToSueTheCity
2 comments:
ugh.. I wish that was the only place that had this problem. I've gone into these twice in the past year, once while moving along at about 25km/h (once while rolling slowly to a stop). Thankfully the former happened to my rear wheel and didn't do any damage. Yikes though!
-Wes
The problem is that cyclists typically do not ride over the sewer grates unless some driver sends them there. So as they are trying to avoid the car they are at risk of an equally dangerous problem.
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