Tory seeks funds to make roads safer
More money needed for city’s Vision Zero initiative following a string of pedestrian and cyclist deaths
Toronto Mayor John Tory hopes to boost funding for a road safety plan amidst what some are calling a crisis of pedestrian and cyclist deaths in Canada’s largest city.
Tory said Friday that he would make a motion at next week’s executive committee seeking an additional $13 million for the plan, which the city has dubbed Vision Zero. The money would be taken from the 2017 budget surplus, and would bring the program’s total budget to $100 million over five years. Of that, $34 million would be spent in 2018.
“I have been horrified by the deaths of pedestrians and cyclists in Toronto. Over the past few days, we have once again seen how dangerous and deadly our streets can be,” Tory said in statement.
The mayor said he had directed city staff to use the new funding to speed up the implementation of as many safety measures as they can, and to “do everything possible as quickly as possible to make our streets safer.”
The announcement follows another deadly week on Toronto’s streets.
On Monday, Isabel Soria, 50, was killed in a hit-and-run as she crossed the street near Briar Hill Ave. and Dufferin St. On Tuesday, Dalia Chako, 58, died in a collision with a truck while she was riding her bike near Bloor and St. George Sts.
Also on Tuesday, police an- nounced that a cyclist who was struck at the intersection of Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Colborne Lodge Dr. on May 15 had died in hospital last week. He was later identified as 36-yearold Jonas Mitchell.
According to the mayor’s office, the extra $13 million would allow transportation staff to:
accelerate road redesigns
double the number of leading pedestrian signals being installed this year from 40 to 80
paint zebra markings at up to 200 additional intersections
upgrade bike lanes on 10 main routes by painting green lanes through intersections
The city has repeatedly revised its road safety plan in the face of criticism that the program doesn’t go far enough. When Tory announced the plan in June 2016, it initially set a goal of reducing traffic deaths and serious injuries by 20 per cent over 10 years.
Under pressure from safety advocates, city council quickly voted to set a target of eliminating traffic injuries and deaths altogether.
The plan initially had a budget of $68.1 million, but council has voted several times to increase its funding and speed up implementation.
Despite the planned increase, other cities have budgeted far more for road safety. New York City is spending $2.11 billion ($1.6 billion U.S.) over five years, which the city says has resulted in a 45-per-cent decline in pedestrian deaths since 2014. The investment works out to about $244 per capita, while Toronto’s investment is about $34 per capita. Graham Larkin, executive director of Vision Zero Canada, said Toronto’s road safety budget “is not significant.”
“You need to be serious, and be bold in a way that (the mayor and other councillors) collectively were not” on Yonge, Larkin said. Fielding questions from reporters Friday, Tory rejected the suggestion that he had not laid out a strong plan to tackle the road safety problem and was merely adding funding because he was facing public criticism.
According to statistics compiled by the Star, 18 pedestrians and four cyclists have died in Toronto so far this year.