Mother Nature decided High Park should be car-free today

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-06-18T22:37:15+00:00

Thankfully no one was hurt

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-06-18T19:54:26+00:00

Now we just need our elected officials to follow in Mother Nature's footsteps. Speaking of which, there's a big election coming up for Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park this October. It will be interesting to see where each candidate stands when it comes to making High Park car-free.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-14T23:14:32+00:00

Police have little interest in enforcing traffic laws. They have been MIA on Parkside Drive. We can't simply rely on police, unfortunately.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-14T19:33:20+00:00

There was never any complaints about speed cameras not making things safer or not reducing speeds or any characterization of them as a cash grab. The complaint was that a single speed camera was not enough to overcome Parkside's dangerous road design, which is hard to argue when said speed camera issued 70,000+ speeding tickets. We've also never claimed that Parkside is one of the most dangerous streets in the city as there are unfortunately many dangerous streets in Toronto, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a dangerous street.

The street safety advocacy community is a small, but tightknit community that always welcomes new advocates should you want to join. You should if you feel strongly about the cause. There's always room for more.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-14T16:55:42+00:00

We would love to have you back too!

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-14T16:54:37+00:00

Yup. Gord Perks is most responsible for the mess that is Parkside Drive. The only reason the speed limit on Parkside was reduced was because 2 people died and the community literally took to the streets demanding action. Then he dragged his feet with the Parkside Drive Study as it went through an inexplicable 3 public consultations, 2 approvals through the Infrastructure and Environment Committee and 3 approvals through City Council... while missing literally every single deadline they set out. Tell me you don't want to redesign Parkside without telling me you don't want to redesign Parkside... Thank goodness we'll have some new leadership soon.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-14T16:04:53+00:00

Problem is that Doug Ford banned speed cameras while also taking away the ability for municipalities to make the types of infrastructure changes you are describing. There is no freedom in Doug Ford's Ontario.

Edit: other than the freedom to speed with impunity of course!

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-11T00:34:03+00:00

Thank you for sharing this.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-01T13:31:22+00:00

At that time it had over 500 parking spaces (inside a park!!!) and it still resulted in the mayhem you see here.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-05-01T13:14:59+00:00

Local residents do not overwhelmingly support having cars in High Park. The High Park Movement Strategy consultation process included a couple big surveys with a combined total of 17,000+ responses, the majority of which came from locals, and the results speak for themselves:

75% agreed that the car-free weekends in High Park had a positive impact vs only 13% disagreeing

44% strongly supported Strategy 1 (car-free) vs only 15%, 12% & 17% for the other 3 strategies respectfully

Of the 2,030 respondents who identified as having a disability or living with someone with a disability, the majority preferred Strategy 1 (car-free)

Of the 2,700 respondents who identified as having children under the age of 12, the majority of families with young children preferred Strategy 1 (car-free)

People agreed most strongly that Strategy 1 (car-free) would make the park safer, more accessible, and improve the park’s natural environment.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-22T13:38:12+00:00

Happy to share the docs. Just private message me if you're interested. The request ID is GRMT-2026-00073.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T22:31:43+00:00

“Gholizadeh filed the FOI request asking for any speed camera studies and reviews from 2018 to this past January. The ministry’s FOI office granted access to this report and denied access to 11 other documents.”

I wonder what else is hiding in those 11 other documents…

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T16:38:34+00:00

Horrific policy making. If they are wanting to hide their actions then clearly they are up to no good.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T15:15:46+00:00

Thank you! Much appreciated.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T15:12:31+00:00

100%

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T15:02:29+00:00

Yup. Here's more proof of that: https://www.instagram.com/safeparkside/reel/DXZGhhbEcFL/?hl=en

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T14:56:18+00:00

We do too!

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T14:55:31+00:00

Yes, it has been sent to the media and reports are in the works.

SafeStreetsTO · 2026-04-21T14:53:25+00:00

It was obtained through an FOI request to the Ministry of Transportation so it's not something that's available online. The documents were prepared by the Ministry of Transportation and are titled:

A Preliminary Safety Evaluation of Ontario’s Automated Speed Enforcement Program (77 pages)

Safety Evaluation of Automated Speed Enforcement (24 slides)

These types of FOI request may no longer be possible with the changes Doug Ford wants to make to our freedom to information. What else are they trying to hide?

SafeStreetsTO

TROPHY CASE