Traffic officer has advice for kinder, gentler rush hour

by Bill Taylor
Toronto Star February 7, 2000

Admit it, you jaywalked across a busy downtown street as you headedhome from work the other night.

Or drove through a traffic light as it was changing to red. Or rodeyour 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 bygridlock.

“People really need to be more patient, more courteous,'' says ConstableRob Rodriguez - Chi-Chi to his friends - a traffic response officer in52 Division. “Accept that your drive is going to be a little bit longer.''

The home-bound traffic is building. Rodriguez has just reluctantly ticketeda woman who made a right turn in her station wagon off Queen St. on toChurch 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 alwaysfeel bad. Believe it or not, we have a conscience.”

But she has to get the message. She honestly thinks she made a rightturn 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 youwant.' ''

Rodriguez is writing up the incident in his notebook in case he hasto go to court.

“I can't give her a caution,'' he says, frustration in his voice. “Shedoesn'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-hourworking day: Cruising the streets, trying to keep everyone's wheels turningand their tempers unfrayed.

“Enforcing the Highway Traffic Act is not always the way to deal withthe problem,'' says Rodriguez. Sometimes a warning, a word of advice, evenjust the presence of a police car work better than a ticket.

The area covered by 52 Division extends between Spadina Ave. and JarvisSt., from Queens Quay to where the railway tracks cross the city northof Dupont Ave.

Hazards include kamikaze bicycle couriers and drivers with a stick-shiftin one hand, a cellular telephone in the other, their attention anywherebut on the road and the steering wheel left to its own devices.

“More people get into accidents because of cell phones . . .'' saysRodriguez. “Whichever hand they're holding the phone in, they're obliviousto that side.”

“If you're directing traffic and you're waving at the guy to go, hemight be looking right at you but he's not focused. I've had to walk overand bang on the fender to get his attention.''

Even the most considerate motorist is under strain by the evening rushhour.

“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 atthe front of their mind are the worst drivers, definitely. They're focusedon 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'llsay, `Yeah?' Like, so what?''

After an incident, he says, “you talk to them sometimes and they can'tbelieve what they've just done.”

“I had one guy got into a melee on Bloor St. He wound up hitting twoparked cars just because he didn't want to let this other car in frontof him.”

“The biggest thing is someone does something accidentally - they'llcut 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 givethe 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 forceto work in Ottawa, his hometown, but came back because “there wasn't enoughaction. 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 theguy, I was fiddling with the radio.' “

“You can see sometimes the person is really flustered and that's whatcaused the accident. I've talked to people and taken them back to whathappened to them in the morning. Something at work set them off or theirtoast got burned and at the end of the day their mind was still on thatand not on driving.''

David Wiesenthal, a social and environmental psychologist at York University,says the anonymity a car provides contributes to aggressive driving inthe city.

“It's unlikely you'll ever see the guy you just cut off or gave thefinger to again,'' he says. “In a small town, they'd recognize your carand perhaps see you on a daily basis. Having these people as your neighbours
tends to restrict your behaviour.''

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 ofyou, 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'shard to say that there's a single driving culture. In other places, youknow 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 admitthey were wrong.

The first makes an illegal right turn off University Ave. on to AdelaideSt.

“He told me, `I know I did it. I didn't know where I was going. You'reright.' “

“I said to him, `Well, I lost sight of you in the traffic and that savedyou 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 thesafest time for him to do it.

“I said, `In some respects you're right. But a red's a red and you'vegot to stop.' ''

There are jaywalkers everywhere. It's an offence but you can't ticketeveryone.

“I'm surprised more people aren't run over,'' says Rodriguez. “Especiallyon 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 afterthem.''

Cyclists are another matter. Riding on the sidewalk, ignoring trafficsignals, riding the wrong way on a one-way street - all are offences. Manyriders don't realize they're bound by the Highway Traffic Act.

He sees a lot of accidents involving cyclists - especially courierswho take sometimes outrageous risks - and motor vehicles.

``You say, `Didn't you see the car coming?' And they say, `Yeah, butI had the right of way.' And you say, `Sure, but it's not him who's inhospital.'

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. Hopefullyhe'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 Isee a police car, I drive differently!''

To the editor:

I am writing regarding the portrayal of bicycle couriers in “Ordealby Gridlock” (Toronto Star February 7, 2000). While the reporter describederrant and illegal behaviour of virtually all road users he chose to applyderogatory labels to only one group -  “kamikaze bicycle couriers.”  

Justification for labeling all messengers as “kamikazes” included anexample of the “outrageous risks” that couriers take merely by maintainingtheir right of way. Rather than counseling couriers by telling “them” toget out of the way of  cars, perhaps Constable Rodriguez could insteadcounsel motorists as to the rights of cyclists to public roads.

As for actual courier behaviour, a study on the Safety of Bicycle Couriersprepared by the Societe de l'assurance automobile du Quebec concluded thatcouriers "have no more of a propensity for accidents per kilometre traveledthan other bicycle riders." In addition, Ottawa’s Department of Engineeringand Works “found no statistical evidence to support the opinion that bicyclecouriers violate the Highway Traffic Act with greater frequency than recreationalcyclists.”  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
Toronto Hoof and Cycle Courier Coalition