Vision Zero Network slams Toronto's proposed donations program for road safety

The international campaign that inspired Toronto's Vision Zero plan is questioning the city's commitment to road safety after staff proposed a donations program to help pay for traffic calming measures.

Thestar.com
Dec. 4, 2017
By Samantha Beattie

Organizers with the international campaign that inspired Toronto's Vision Zero plan are questioning the city's commitment to road safety after staff outlined a donations program to help pay for traffic calming measures.

"If a city commits to Vision Zero, they need to invest the resources necessary to prioritize safety," said Vision Zero Network spokesperson Kathleen Ferrier. "Treating safety as a nice-to-have amenity rather than a need-to-have priority is just not acceptable.

"These are life and death decisions and cannot be shortchanged."

At a public works committee meeting last week, city staff proposed a donations program for residents to contribute online to "any specific countermeasure or program to help offset future costs" of road safety initiatives, in a report focused on how to accelerate Vision Zero, a five-year action plan aimed at reducing traffic-related deaths and injuries.

"Residents who have voluntarily donated funds to support (Vision Zero) may contact their councillor to advise what improvements they would like the funds to apply to."

Council will this week consider the donations program, along with other ways to accelerate Vision Zero. The plan's data-driven countermeasures aim to, over the next five years, make roads safer for pedestrians, school children, older adults, cyclists and motorcyclists, and prevent aggressive and distracted driving, said the report. Between 2016 and 2017, the city fast-tracked pedestrian safety corridors and senior safety zones.

Barbara Gray, transportation services manager, said despite what the report says, "We weren't in any way asking the public to fund Vision Zero.

"Is (accepting donations) feasible? Yes. Is it something that we would likely do? It's not likely."

City departments that accept donations are Animal Services for animal medical care, Parks, Recreation and Urban Forests for memorial trees and benches and Long-Term Care for celebrations and outings at seniors homes.

The idea for a Vision Zero donations program was floated by Councillor Christin Carmichael Greb at a council meeting last November. She said she'd received expressions of interest from schools and resident associations that wanted to purchase "Watch Your Speed" signs that cost about $6,000 each.

"The signs aren't overly expensive, but difficult to get," she told the Star last week. The city currently owns four, which residents can request to have put on their street. "If the city doesn't have the funds, then why not let residents purchase these signs?

Council directed city staff to look into donations, after previously committing $80.3 million Vision Zero over five years, including the purchase of 44 more Watch Your Speed signs.

A donations program would allow neighbourhoods that raise funds to receive Watch Your Speed signs sooner than through the Vision Zero budget, which prioritizes locations based on data, said Carmichael Greb.

Toronto's road safety plan earlier generated controversy when it initially aimed to reduce, not eliminate, traffic deaths by only 20 per cent over the next 10 years. Toronto has had 55 traffic deaths so far in 2017.

Some advocates believe the proposed donations program is another example of Toronto not taking road safety seriously.

"Vision Zero is all about our most vulnerable users of public space - pedestrians, cyclists, children and the elderly - the question is, do we see their safety as something that ought to be frivolous?" said former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat.

David Stark, co-founder of Friends and Families for Safe Streets, said he's concerned about inequality.

"When residents donate funds that may be setting up an unequal system," said Stark, whose wife Erica Stark died after she was struck by a minivan in 2014. "Road safety should be funded through taxpayer dollars for all Torontonians no matter where they live."

Other cities that have received praise from the Vision Zero Network for their commitment to road safety include Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash., and Fremont, Calif. (in Silicon Valley), all of which confirmed they do not accept donations and prioritize Vision Zero in their budgets.

Last year, Portland implemented a 10 per cent local gas tax, with close to half the funds going to safety projects, said city spokesperson John Brady.

Fremont has experienced a "culture change" in recent years, said Hans Larsen, public works director. His city of 230,000 people reallocated $2 million from car-oriented projects, including traffic light signaling, to road safety improvements.