Think twice: Vancouver lawyer warns against using “bricks” to cross the road

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While many people in Vancouver laughed at the “bricks” laid out to help pedestrians cross the road safely, one person was certainly not amused. Lawyer Kyla Lee is calling the project a “disaster.”

“Let’s be clear, what they’ve done here is facilitate criminal offences,” she said.

Just before April Fools’ Day, the Vision Zero Vancouver team hung baskets with foam bricks on opposite sides of the busy Granville Island crosswalk and an intersection at Nicola and Nelson streets. However, the installation was not a joke. Pedestrians in the area can pick up the brick as they walk across the street and wave it around to ensure drivers stop.

“Drivers frequently ignore people trying to get across,” Vision Zero previously told Daily Hive.

With a brick in the hand of a pedestrian, advocates said, “Suddenly, they have no problem seeing and stopping for pedestrians!”

While some people called the idea “brilliant,” Lee said she thought it was a “sick, twisted joke at the expense of pedestrian collisions.”

@kylaleelawyer

#stitch with @Freshdaily Vancouver this is an absolutely unhinged way to teach people about road safety. It is going to lead to harm. It may lead to people being charged with criminal offenses, because this was fought out and very clearly occurred without the benefit of legal advice #DrivingLaw #Vancouver #VancouverDrivers #DUILawyer #DrivingLawyer #KylaLee #YVR #YVRTraffic #TrafficTicket #UtteringThreats #CriminalLaw #CanadianLaw #KylaLee

♬ Noticias – yagobeats

While she agrees that drivers should stop for pedestrians at a crosswalk, Lee said, “Let’s not devolve our society to the point where we’re actively threatening drivers.”

“When you threaten to use a weapon to cause harm to somebody or do harm to their property, that is a criminal offence,” she explained. “If you were to walk across the street, waving a brick at a car… presumably you’re going to smash their window, or dent their hood or — god forbid — beat the shit out of the driver because they didn’t stop for you in the crosswalk when you have the right of way, that is a criminal offence.”

Despite it being a fake brick, Lee said Vision Zero is putting pedestrians at risk of being charged and potentially harmed since the driver does not know the brick is not real.

“I have seen cases… where pedestrians are frustrated… and the pedestrian advances on the driver, angrily yelling, making threatening gestures, making threatening words, and the driver perceives this to be an active threat. And using the laws of self-defence, the driver attempts to flee from the situation, sometimes through the pedestrian,” Lee said in a video she shared on TikTok.

Advocates at Vision Zero Vancouver argue pedestrian safety is an issue in Vancouver that “doesn’t get nearly enough attention or action from our local leaders,” despite data.

However, Lee said while Vision Zero may believe its “Pedestrian Brick Crossing System” will make drivers more cognizant of pedestrians in a crosswalk, “what they’re actually going to do is potentially lead to situations where pedestrians get run over because drivers perceive them to be under threat of being beaten with a brick by a pedestrian because the only person that knows that that’s a foam brick is the person who’s holding it.”

Lee continued to call the project a “terrible idea.”

“This should be removed from our streets right away, and Vision Zero should be criticized for not thinking this through and very clearly not getting legal advice before they embarked on this ridiculous endeavour.”

Daily Hive reached out to Vision Zero for comment on Lee’s video, but it said “We’ve moved on from the bricks now.”

Daily Hive also reached out to VPD but did not receive a response.

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