Ambitious new goal, but no extra money for Toronto road safety plan

The public works committee has urged council to “endorse the goal of reducing the number of road fatalities and serious injuries to zero.”

Thestar.com
June 20, 2016
By Ben Spurr

Councillors voted on Monday to set a target of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries on Toronto’s streets, but it appears unlikely that ambitious goal will be backed up by a major funding increase for the city’s new road safety plan.

At a meeting of the public works committee, Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25, Don Valley West) moved a motion asking council to “endorse the goal of reducing the number of road fatalities and serious injuries to zero” as part of the five-year plan.

The motion, which passed unanimously, came after the strategy’s initial target of reducing serious and fatal collisions by only 20 per cent over the next 10 years came under heavy fire from critics. Pedestrian and cycling advocates, including relatives of people killed in traffic collisions, argued that no road death is acceptable and the city should aim to eliminate them completely.

Robinson’s motion also asked staff to review the plan in two years, and to report to next month’s city council meeting on the possibility of accelerating its implementation as well as “opportunities for new and enhanced funding.”

The plan currently calls for an investment of $68.1 million over five years, of which about $40 million is new funding. The money would be used to implement 40 safety “countermeasures” that include creating “pedestrian safety corridors” on high risk roads, redesigning select intersections, and lowering speed limits at 54 locations.

Robinson, who chairs the public works committee, said she was confident that transportation staff will be able to find more money for the plan before it goes to a council vote on July 12, either within the department’s existing budget or by seeking contributions from the provincial and federal governments.

“Now that we’ve set this new target of zero, we have to get more aggressive about this,” said Robinson.

But she added that it was unlikely the plan will get a major funding injection.

“I don’t think . . . you can expect to see hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s not going to happen,” she said. “There’s so many demands on infrastructure right now and the mayor’s trying to juggle all that.”

Activist groups had been pressing for more substantial changes to the plan, including an immediate increase to its budget, and more aggressive measures like citywide speed limit reductions.

Maureen Coyle, a spokeswoman for Walk Toronto, criticized the plan for only focusing on select areas of the city, and said the current budget isn’t big enough to pay for the sweeping changes to street design that would be required to eradicate deaths.

“In order to get to zero then there has to be some substantive changes made to the built environment, and I don’t see those substantive changes coming,” Coyle said.

“As far as I can see there isn’t any money, and a motion to find some is a lot different than a motion that says, yes we will (increase funding).”

Since Robinson and Mayor John Tory unveiled the plan a week ago, three pedestrians have been killed in traffic collisions, including a 38-year-old woman who was run over by an SUV that jumped the sidewalk of Bremner Blvd. near Spadina Ave. The driver wasn’t charged.

The deaths bring the total number of pedestrian fatalities in Toronto to 20 so far this year. Last year 65 pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists were killed in traffic collisions, the highest number in 10 years.