Project E.R.A.S.E. sounds less like a traffic campaign and more like a villain’s laser beam. Eliminate Racing Activities on Streets Everywhere. Fair enough. Street racing should be eliminated. So should stunt driving, 150 km/h ‘runs’ on the 401, donuts in industrial parks, and any other behaviour where somebody decides the public road is their audition tape for Canada’s Worst Driver.
Toronto Police, working with the OPP and other municipalities, just wrapped a two-month enforcement campaign aimed at street racing, excessive speeding, careless driving and even car meets, which police say can boil over. Toronto Police said officers issued 148 stunt-driving tickets and responded to 151 dangerous-driving reports. Upon conviction, fines can run from $2,000 to $10,000. That is not pocket change. Nor should it be when the behaviour is genuinely dangerous.
“We see it everywhere,” Toronto Police Inspector Paul Qureshi told the Toronto Sun. “On the highways, in parking lots. These types of events happen when parking lots are empty because there is space. When the malls are closed, for example, you might see cars congregate in that area and they decide to go to a smaller side street, or maybe a warehouse area where there is not a lot of traffic and then they engage in that type of behaviours.”
Puzzled police still seem to equate a pop-up meet with a gathering point for street racers. That is where the gears start grinding. There is a real difference between street racing and a car meet. A line of parked cars in a plaza, with people drinking coffee, talking T66 turbos and MoTeC exhaust system is not automatically a crime scene—that’s just car culture. A parking lot is not a drag strip just because a couple WRXs are parked near each other.
But car people also have to stop handing police the black paint brush. For every hundred cars at a park-and-chill meet in Scarborough, the public remembers the one genius who leaves sideways, hits the highway and gets caught at ridiculous speeds. That driver does not just get himself in trouble. He stains everyone around him.
Project E.R.A.S.E. should focus on the dangerous drivers who deserve attention. Previous initiatives like Operation Silent Night have blurred the line between spectating, gathering and racing. Gearheads need to know where they stand. In Vaughan, under Operation Silent Night, a person mere spectating at an ‘unauthorized’ car meet can receive a $500 penalty.
Imagine that. A peaceful gathering of car enthusiasts can become a ticketable offence if the event is deemed unauthorized. It’s truly disturbing that in a country where freedom of peaceful assembly is supposed to be guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, authorities seem determined to limit those freedoms for political points with voters.
That is why municipal crackdowns need clear lines. Tell drivers what is prohibited, tell spectators what is safe, and do not leave legality buried in bureaucratic tire smoke. Erase street racing—absolutely. But do not erase car culture with it.
Well put.
I’m tired of car culture being the enemy.