City road safety report may be delayed by a year

A study that could reshape road-safety measures across the city will be delayed up to a year.

Council asked city staff in December 2016 to analyze Toronto’s traffic warrant system — the policies that determine which roads and intersections are recommended for road-safety measures such as crosswalks, stop lights and stop signs.

The motion asked staff to report back, by the first quarter of 2017, on ways to enhance safety for “vulnerable road users” such as pedestrians and cyclists. It passed by a margin of 28 to 11.

Now, the report won’t arrive until the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018, up to a year after it was supposed to go before the city’s public works committee.

“Transportation Services staff are in the process of reviewing the various warrants noted in this council motion,” wrote city spokesperson Steve Johnston in an email. “This review has taken longer than expected to complete.”

Councillor Janet Davis, who origi- nally put forward the motion for a review, understands the analysis can be difficult. But Davis also stressed that with dozens of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities each year and the city having committed to a safe-streets plan, completing the work in a timely manner is essential. “These warrants are outdated and they need to be changed,” she said, arguing the policies are “based on a set of assumptions that are no longer valid.”

Under the current system, when a community group or councillor wants to introduce a road-safety measure, a traffic study is conducted. City staff only recommend changes if the area meets certain criteria, including the traffic speed, volume and proximity to other intersections.

But road-safety advocates like Dylan Reid of Walk Toronto have long accused the existing warrant system of protecting a car-centric status quo.

“Basically, the traffic control system is very limited and doesn’t really have the flexibility to take the situation into account.”