Toronto city progress on road safety plan

In at a recent news conference held at Dundas St. E. and River St., Public works chair Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25, Don Valley West) discussed ongoing changes at the intersection to protect pedestrians.

The highlights of the discussion were eliminating northbound right-turn channel at the intersections, improving pedestrian crossing markings, installing a red light camera, lowering the speed limits from 50 km/h to 40 km/h and retiming traffic signals.

In July 2016 the council had sanctioned $80.3-million for road safety.

So far this year, 65 traffic fatalities had been reported last year which was an 11-year high.

But more pedestrian crashes during approaching shorter days of the autumn are apprehended.

“I can’t stress enough that making our roads safer is one of the most important priorities in this city,” Robinson said.

The initiatives planned for 2016 included reducing speed limits at 14 high-risk corridors, making physical changes to 14 intersections and adding clear pedestrian signals at dozens of locations.

Other initiatives included were purchasing additional “watch your speed” radar signs and setting these up at five school zones, launching a motorcycle safety campaign, and installing red light cameras at 79 sites.

Along with the road safety initiative, an anti-congestion campaign was launched by the city, motivating the motorists to move faster through intersections.

Robinson saw no conflict between the two plans.

“No, I don’t think congestion and safety are at odds with each other,” she said. “It’s better to keep things moving smoothly, slowly, and keep pedestrians safe.”

But Maureen Coyle, a member of the steering committee for pedestrian-advocacy group Walk Toronto stated that there was bound to be conflict between keeping traffic flowing and pedestrian safety.

Coyle suggested that the city should consider an “immediate, across the board reduction” in speed limits.

Robinson was open to the idea. She said that the road safety plan would consider reducing speeds only on streets with incidence of a high number of collisions.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj, Image, Don Valley Parkway: Wikipedia)