T.O. experimenting with right-on-red ban

TORONTO — Drivers already frustrated with how difficult it is to pilot a vehicle in downtown Toronto could be seeing red after city council announced plans for a pilot project that bans right turns on red lights at 10 intersections next year.

According to The Globe & Mail, the intersections will likely be in pedestrian-heavy locations.

Glenn De Baeremaeker, the chairman of the city’s works committee, says that restricting right turns on red lights could reduce the number of pedestrians and cyclists who get hit by vehicles (a city study reports 422 pedestrians with the right-of-way getting struck in 2002-2003).

There is no current plans to extend the ban city wide, De Baeremaeker says.

However, councillor Case Ootes isn’t holding his breath. In his experience, these types of programs almost always spread throughout the city — especially in Toronto, whose policymakers, notes Ootes, are "anti-car — there’s no doubt about it."

The turning restrictions aren’t unique, however. Toronto already has 98 places where drivers can’t turn on reds.

Montreal and Manhattan are two of the handful of jurisdictions in North America that ban right-on-red turns across most of the city.