City hall is undertaking an immediate safety review of Toronto’s approximately 300-kilometre network of multi-use trails following the death last week of a boy riding his bike along Martin Goodman Trail.

The first order of business will be addressing pressing safety risks, including problems on the stretch of Lake Shore Blvd. W. where 5-year-old Xavier Morgan died after falling from a bike path into traffic.

Safety advocates have said a simple guardrail could have saved the boy’s life.

In an interview Sunday, Mayor John Tory said he wants to do everything possible to ensure no child or adult can fall onto a roadway from that trail.

“It’s just not something that is an acceptable risk, and sometimes you learn the tragic way,” he said.

Councillor Jaye Robinson, chair of the city’s public works and infrastructure committee, will meet Monday with Toronto’s general manager of transportation services to begin a review of trails throughout the city.

The aim will be both to make immediate changes to problem areas and to consider longer-term solutions that may require construction, or even moving a trail that may be too close to a roadway.

Tory said the review will consider safety issues that arise when trails are adjacent to vehicle traffic, as well as paths where the danger might arise from a busy mix of cyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders, rollerbladers and more — particularly as the weather gets warmer and traffic increases.

– By Wendy Gillis – Toronto Star