In Etobicoke Centre (Ward 2 in the City of Toronto), in the neighbourhood of Eatonville; roads such as The West Mall, Bloor Street West, The East Mall, Burnhamthorpe Road, Renforth Drive, and Rathburn Road are treated as if they were part of the 400 series highway system. More and more drivers show little respect to our residents who need to walk and cross our busy streets to to simple things like go to school, work, shop, or even just to get out and exercise. 

While these roads have always been busy at rush hour during the week, over the past 5 years they have become much more busy at all hours of the day and this includes weekends too. 

With increases in local development, technology advances in GPS, and more people returning to the roads to commute, the roads in this area used more often and many drivers are disregarding safe driving practices. 

High rates of speed and dangerous driving habits are leading to more and more families choosing to drive to school versus walking because parents are concerned their children may get hurt because of distracted drivers ignoring the rules related to proper pedestrian crossings including many who drive through crosswalks while pedestrians are waiting to cross the road. For example, each day on The West Mall, just north of Bloor Street the crossing guard who helps families at an actual crosswalk must deal with drivers who ignore her whistles and continue through over the speed limit while children as young as Kindergarten are waiting to cross to go to school. This crossing becomes even more unsafe when she is not there as many drivers disregard anyone trying to cross. 

Residents have been looking to the city and to the local police for assistance for many years. Up to this point in time very little has been done to assist the community in making drivers accountable for their actions. The community is tired of being ignored and deserves not to be scared any time a loved one needs to cross a road.

We request that the CIty of Toronto with the use of Vision Zero and the many tools available to the city from the Ontario Ministry of Transport; make the needed improvements to our local infrastructure to ensure that drivers are held accountable and that the concerns we are sharing are corrected in a timely manner.