Scary footage of an altercation between two local commuters is sparking (yet another) city-wide conversation this week about road safety in Toronto.
The video in question, shot from the handlebars and saddle of a bike, shows a motorist and a cyclist vying for space on Danforth Avenue during rush hour Thursday evening.
A Toyota Yaris is seen coming within what looks like inches of the cyclist at least twice in the video. At one point, the car pulls so far to the right that the bike is almost crushed into an illegally-parked service van.
Another cyclist riding in front of the dash-cam bike attempts to stop the car, but the motorist drives away.
"Another maybe foot and I could have been dead," said the cyclist, Dimiter Todorov, to CBC Toronto. "It makes me angry, because I have every right to be on the street as other people. He wouldn't ram another car off the road. Why would you ram me off the road?"
Commenters on Reddit and YouTube are, for the most part, incensed by the driver's actions.
"I wonder what the driver was thinking when he rammed his 2 tonne car into a flimsy pencil frame. He could've killed OP," wrote one Redditor on the original video post.
"Please prosecute this guy," wrote one Redditor of the motorist. "Both my wife and I have had this happen to us while cycling. This is extremely dangerous and the police do not take it seriously enough."
No excuse using car like a weapon. Will there be charges? Msg must be loud & clear @TorontoPolice @TPS_ParkingPal https://t.co/KjgD6LppcH
— Trudo Lemmens (@TrudoLemmens) October 29, 2017
"Actually making an effort to try to endanger a cyclist's life just to end up in bumper to bumper traffic," wrote another. "This scumbag shouldn't be on the road at all."
Others are holding up the incident as proof that Danforth needs separate bike lanes, like Bloor, and some are asking the police on Twitter to press charges against the driver.
"I posted this in the hopes that some drivers might see how their driving looks from a cyclist's perspective," wrote Todorov in the description of his video.
"Please share the road. If you really want someone to move over, honk. But please don't hit people."
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
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