Toronto should speed up on Vision Zero

Thestar.com
July 19, 2019

There’s much to applaud in the reboot of the City of Toronto’s road safety plan, Vision Zero, that city council approved this week.

The plan, aimed at eliminating road fatalities, will reduce speed limits on dozens of arterial roads across Toronto by 10 km/h, double the number of red light cameras to catch speeders, and change the criteria city staff use when evaluating whether to install midblock crossings. That’s key, considering that more than half of pedestrians killed by cars are struck while trying to cross between lights.

Still, as welcome as Vision Zero 2.0 is, it’s clear the city cannot rest on its laurels. It must go further, faster.

After all, the last version of the plan, which will remain in effect until 2020, had zero impact on reducing pedestrian deaths on our streets over the past two-and-a-half years.

In fact, an alarming 47 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on Toronto’s streets in 2018, two more than were killed in 2017, the year after Vision Zero was implemented.

And if city council needed further proof that it must go further, faster it came in the sobering news that even as councillors were discussing the road safety plan on Tuesday, a 68-year-old woman was struck and killed by a city garbage truck in Councillor Shelley Carroll’s Don Valley North ward. She was the 18th pedestrian to be killed on the city’s streets so far this year.

The fact is, the city could go further and be confident that it will have public support behind it. After all, a poll conducted this spring showed Torontonians overwhelmingly support lower speed limits and photo radar to force motorists to slow down. A majority also want more bike lanes, which make transiting the city safer for cyclists and pedestrians alike.

Other cities, notably New York, are taking stronger action for safe streets and spending significantly more than Toronto to get there.

Under New York City’s own Vision Zero plan, 40 km/h is the new default speed on most streets, including major thoroughfares. But the new plan approved by Toronto council would reduce speeds on major arterial roads only to 50 km/h from 60.

That’s despite an international study that indicates pedestrians still have an 85-per-cent chance of being killed in a collision with a vehicle travelling at 50 km/h. At 40 km/h more than two-thirds of victims survive.

Jess Spieker, a spokesperson for Friends and Families for Safe Streets, wonders how a plan that reduces road speeds to a level where pedestrians still have an 85 per cent chance of being killed in a collision can really deserve the name “Vision Zero.”

While councillors may be thinking there’s only so much drivers will accept, that hasn’t been the deciding factor in New York where Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed through massive change despite resistance from many citizens and even city staff.

Consider what was done along New York’s Queens Boulevard. What was once a 12-lane artery, known as the Boulevard of Death because 186 pedestrians died or were seriously injured there between 1990 and 2015, now has a 40 km/h speed limit, wide medians and dedicated bus and bike lanes. The result? The death toll on the boulevard dropped to zero.

Indeed, New York credits its tougher Vision Zero program for a 44-per-cent drop in pedestrian deaths since 2014. In 2018 its roads were safer than anytime since 1910.

As Carroll told city councillors after announcing the death of the pedestrian in her ward, when “you hesitate, you lose lives.”

Still, under the plan approved by council, the city won’t start lowering speed limits until next year and it will take two years after that to fully implement them. In other words, the job won’t be finished until 2022.

There’s no question council is heading in the right direction with Vision Zero 2.0. But it needs to, dare we say, speed up.