September 10, 2022 - (Toronto, ON) A video clip by Derek Lind circulating on Twitter shows three Toronto cops on bikes failing to obey stop signs and stop lights – yet Toronto Police aggressively targeted cyclists in High Park this summer for the same infractions, reports BlogTO, Newstalk1010 and others.
The three officers failed to stop at a stop sign at Princess and The Esplanade and repeated the infraction a few blocks later. They also failed to indicate turns and stop at a red light, showing little regard for the rules of the road that Toronto Police so vigorously enforced on cyclists recently at High Park issuing many tickets.
Personal injury lawyer and cycling safety advocate David Shellnutt, who also runs The Biking Lawyer on social media, is adamantly against the double standard, but supports the footage as it demonstrates the well known Idaho Stop, ratified there in 1982.
Active in some US states but not in Canada, the Idaho Stop allows cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, whereby they can safely bike through efficiently and at low risk – just as the three cops did.
Read the full article and watch the video here.