Dear Mayor, Chief, Councillors, Cycling Committee, Parks Staff,

Again last night (July 1st) cars, again, took over the parks in the west end of the city. From Marilyn Bell park to Sir Casimir Gzowski Park, including Sunnyside, the parks were full of parked cars or cars parking. People were again driving on the Martin Goodman trail to the point that the trail was completely unusable by pedestrians and cyclists; just in time for the fireworks.

It got to the point that my wife decided to go home and to not to enjoy the fireworks last night, in spite of the fact that she shares Canada’s Birthday and really enjoys fireworks. She decided not to go because she did not want our young kids to be run over by one of the drivers who are more concerned about finding a parking spot while driving on the bike path than about not hitting the people who are supposed to be the legitimate park users. This abuse of our parks was WORSE last night than it was in May, the last time I complained about this.

At least this time I saw a presence of about 6 parking enforcement and two cops on Bikes a couple of hours before; but I saw none about an hour before the fireworks. Those I did see did make a noble attempt to slow the flow (please, please pass on my thanks to them for their attempt!!). But there were 28 police on bikes at Critical Mass last Friday to “protect” cars from cyclists on our highways (heaven forbid cyclists should go on the Gardiner again!), but only 6 parking officers to protect people and our parks from cars with a few parking tickets; obviously this was not enough.

This seems to send the message that the Police values cars far more than people, or values our parks. Our parks and trails can become driveways and parking lots, drivers can threaten my kids with their cars; but the police work extra hard to protect the highways from cyclists.

This makes me think that police might have mal-adjusted priorities or that the values of the police are very wonky.

If I wanted to watch the fireworks from a parking lot, I can go to any Wal-Mart, Home Depot or to any mall; there are plenty of large parking lots all over our city. Ontario Place already has a couple of parking lots that I could watch the fireworks from. I had hoped to go to a park filled with trees and grass and people. Instead our parks felt exactly like a parking lot: full of cars and drivers looking for parking spots.

I am very disappointed about how this worked out last night. And I am appalled that so many resources can be mustered to protect car spaces from cyclists at a Critical Mass, but not enough resources can be allocated to protect the pedestrian and cyclists from cars on our trails on a fireworks night.

Yours in extreme frustration,

Anthony M. Humphreys