The Biking Lawyer explains why this is crazy stupid.
“Meaning, as the law presently stands, advancing with the Pedestrian Head Start Signal is illegal on a bicycle.”
Yup, that head start signal that’s been shown to dramatically improve safety of anyone crossing intersections, including cyclists, is not allowed to be used by cyclists in Toronto.
Seems like Toronto police are intentionally targeting the city’s vulnerable population, instead of ticketing people in death machines who are breaking any and all laws.
On bike: vehicle
Off bike: pedestrian
Pick a lane?
The head start signal is to keep both cyclists and pedestrians safe from cars when used as intended. The “gotcha” with these tickets is the mixed signals (no pun intended) that city’s are giving cyclists.
Mississauga, for example, says that the head start signal is for both cyclists and pedestrians, but only if cyclists have their own (separate) signal. If not, they have to wait for a green light, putting them at risk like there was no head start.
And Toronto even promoted this as a cycling safety feature when it was first announced to help the city reach their vision zero goals!
Data shows that allowing cyclists and pedestrians to use the head start creates no conflict between the two, and it saves lives.
Punishing people for wanting to be safe after setting something up for them to be safe makes no sense at all.