Vision Zero group slams city over donations
Staff have proposed program for residents to help fund Toronto’s road safety plans
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 trafficrelated 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, schoolchildren, 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?” Carmichael Greb said.
Council directed city staff to look into donations, after previously committing $80.3 million to Vision Zero over five years, including the purchase of 44 more Watch Your Speed signs.
A donations program would allow neighbourhoods that raise money to receive Watch Your Speed signs sooner than through the Vision Zero budget, which prioritizes locations based on data, Carmichael Greb said.
Toronto has had 55 traffic deaths so far in 2017.