Cycling Safety Hotline

Okay, maybe Bike Hotline would be a simpler moniker.

Here's the idea:

We should have a bicycling reporting line (perhaps housed at Cycling Toronto - http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/index.htm) and be able to report licence plates of dangerous drivers. Yes, community policing. If that same licence plate should get into an actual accident involving a cyclist, and they're already on file, the fine should be doubled -- and if the cyclist is injured, there should be possible jail time (or at the very least, community service). If there is widespread public awareness of such protective measures, drivers would probably be far more cautious around cyclists. Sad to say, but true.

Note: The bicycling hotline could also be used to report police officers who refuse to enforce laws affecting cyclist safety/rights. (Then feedback to Toronto Police Board, Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, and that other community oversight group...?) Right now, Cycling Toronto is a 'play nice' entity with no bite or political power.

Haven't really thought this through, but was proposing the licence plates of cars who drive dangerously and nearly hit cyclists (or do in fact hit them) be called into this Bike Hotline and stored in a file. We could and should somehow get both the City and the Police to co-operate on this. It would be a way of forcing them to be accountable -- serve and protect, right?

I realize the Police are often extremely lackadaisical (nay downright complicit and car-rupt, as Hamish Wilson would say) when it comes to cyclists' rights -- *even* when the cyclists have been injured or killed. Maybe we could work with the cyclist cops on this. Makes sense, right? More empathy.

Perhaps with the right statistics and pressure, this could get off the ground and indirectly shift policing accountability, attitudes and enforcement with respect to cyclists' safety and bike lanes. I know that's being pretty hopeful, but...

Cyclists are taxpayers too -- in fact, we pay equal taxes, hello!

By ignoring information about dangerous drivers, the City and the Police would be complicit in causing harm to citizens who are actually bettering Toronto with their alternative/sustainable transportation choices. Cyclists should not be punished for being good citizens, while the real culprits are being aided and abetted by authorities.

People could call and/or visit a website (eg, enter the info in a web form, which would be sent off to whoever the coordinater is - maybe Cycling Toronto or the Cycling Committee, since they already work with the City?).

What do you think? Is this all pie in the sky?
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Also I understand that Martino Reis and Darren Stehr did a lot of this type of community policing via ARC and a now-defunct site called getoutofthebikelane.com. Suggest that we approach the authorities and put pressure on the right parties to set up infrastructure for a Bike Hotline, so that it exists within the (dreaded) system.

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