City promotes progress on road safety plan
Changes at Dundas and River include lowering speed limits and removing right-turn lane
As Toronto enters a dangerous season for traffic collisions, the city is touting the progress it has made on its new road safety plan.
Public works chair Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25, Don Valley West) held a news conference at Dundas St. E. and River St. on Thursday morning to highlight changes that are underway at the intersection to protect pedestrians.
They include removing the intersection’s northbound right-turn channel, enhancing pedestrian crossing markings, lowering speed limits on Dundas from 50 km/h to 40 km/h, installing a red light cam- era, and retiming traffic signals.
“This intersection is only one example of the work city engineers and city crews have been doing across Toronto since we approved the road safety plan,” Robinson said.
“I can’t stress enough that making our roads safer is one of the most important priorities in this city.”
Council endorsed the $80.3-million road safety strategy in July. Not all of the work at Dundas and River was a result of the plan. Removing the right-turn channel was approved before council adopted the strategy.
So far this year, 65 people have died in traffic collisions in Toronto. Thirty-five of the victims were pedestrians and one was a cyclist. There were 65 traffic fatalities all of last year, an 11-year high.
The road safety plan was supposed to be implemented between 2017 and 2022, but some work was moved forward to this year after advocates criticized the strategy as too timid.
Work slated for 2016 includes reducing speed limits at 14 high-risk corridors.
Other initiatives planned for 2016 — including buying additional “watch your speed” radar signs and erecting them at five school zones, launching a motorcycle safety campaign, and installing red light cameras at 79 sites — also predated the safety plan, but have either been accelerated or renewed.
Parallel to the road safety initiative, the city has launched an anti-congestion campaign, which includes efforts to get cars moving through intersections faster.
Robinson said she 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.”
Maureen Coyle, a member of the steering committee for pedestrianadvocacy group Walk Toronto, disagreed. “There is an insoluble tension between the two narratives of keeping traffic flowing and pedestrian safety,” she said. “Some of the strategies for one are going to be in conflict with the other.” With files from Alina Bykova