Cyclist's death changed nothing, husband says
One year later, council committee deadlocked over bike safety measures
The husband of a woman killed last year while cycling through one of Saskatoon's busiest intersections heard the city may lend support to calls for tougher regulations on vehicles — but then saw members of council's transportation committee deadlock over adding safety improvements specifically for cyclists.
Tod Fox appeared Tuesday before the committee, sharing further details about the death of his wife, Natasha, 33. She was killed in May 2023 in a collision with a concrete truck while cycling through the intersection of College Drive and Wiggins Avenue. Fox repeated Tuesday that he doesn't blame the truck driver, and supports the police decision not to lay charges.
He said his wife's “entirely preventable” death resulted from the concrete truck driver's inability to see pedestrians and cyclists from the vehicle's cab. He noted the company in question uses new trucks with better visibility in its operations in the United Kingdom, in response to regulations mandating clear sightlines for vehicle operators.
Fox said efforts to get the company to voluntarily do the same here have been rebuffed so far, and that he's been in contact with federal and provincial officials to push for new legislation.
“Nothing has changed since Natasha was killed. No one should have to go through what my family has,” Fox said. “No one should have to experience the loss of a loved one because people decided not to do what is right, what they knew they should, what is fair and reasonable, so I promise you this: I will not stop until real change has been made. I will keep showing up. I will keep telling you that you need to do better. I will keep advocating for what is fair and reasonable.”
Mayor Charlie Clark asked Fox to engage further after the meeting, to see if the city might be able to lend its support to his call for legislation on vehicle sightlines.
The fatal collision involving Natasha Fox prompted council to request last year an independent safety audit of the intersection of College Drive and Wiggins Avenue.
The committee on Tuesday received the audit report from engineering firm CIMA+, including 14 recommendations for changes to the intersection and surrounding area. The report authors noted that the intersection is the city's most used by cyclists, who account for about a quarter of all traffic running through it.
The intersection is also the second-most used by pedestrians in the city.
City planners recommended implementing 11 of the proposals from the audit, amounting to about $49,250 worth of work on items ranging from removing a residential parking sign to installing accessible curb ramps.
Other than the widening of a shared-use pedestrian and cycling pathway on the north side of College Avenue, city staff advised against all the recommendations related to adding specific cycling infrastructure to the intersection.
Transportation director Jay Magus said a lack of staff resources would make it impossible to implement a recommendation to speed up a study on optimal north-south cycling routes from neighbourhoods south of College Avenue to the university campus.
Magus said a recommendation to create a one-way street northbound on Wiggins, double the left turn lanes heading southbound from the university and add a fully protected bike lane running along Wiggins for one block south of College was not supported due to potential conflicts with transit routes and the coming introduction of a bus-rapid transit (BRT) corridor along College.
Magus also said the administration did not support a call to restrict right turns on a red light, add a painted `bike box' in the intersection to create a space for cyclists at the front of the vehicle queue and add a painted bike lane on Wiggins running northbound between College Drive and Elliott Street.
Magus said the proposed painted bike lane would be “substandard” at only a metre wide, and expressed worry about creating a false sense of safety for cyclists while noting painted lines don't offer any real protection from vehicles.
Instead, he pointed to another report outlining options for “rapid deployment” of cycling infrastructure using semi-permanent materials, such as movable concrete barriers or movable “pinned” curbs to create physical separation between vehicles and cyclists.
One of the proposed rapid-deployment routes would run parallel to Wiggins, along Munroe Avenue, creating a link running south across Eighth Street and connecting with the Stonebridge neighbourhood, Magus said. The temporary infrastructure would connect to the mixed-use path north of College, which is to connect all the way through to Preston Avenue and the South Saskatchewan River when the BRT is built.
The committee was down to only four voting members Tuesday with the absences of Coun. Darren Hill and Coun Sarina Gersher.
The four remaining members supported unanimously a recommendation that council endorse the administration implementing the 11 recommendations called for by city planners.
Ward 3 Coun. David Kirton introduced a motion to include the bike box, painted bike lane and restriction on right turns at the intersection. He said the city ought to do something to address cyclist safety, even if it was an imperfect solution. Kirton found support from Clark, who noted that the intersection is “substandard right now” when it comes to safety and shouldn't be left as-is.
Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer was one of the two votes against Kirton's motion. He said he wasn't comfortable voting against the assessment of the city's own safety professionals and urged his colleagues not to “confuse motion with progress” on the file.
Committee chair and Ward 9 Coun. Bev Dubois also voted against Kirton's motion, which failed on a tie vote, but will still move on to a full meeting of city council for further discussion.