Transportation Safety and Vision Zero

[Daveography]

Slower Edmonton speed-limit pilot leads to drastic collision reduction
The city's pilot project to reduce speed limits in school zones to 30 km/h is making streets safer.

Collisions causing injuries to cyclists and pedestrians fell by more than 70 per cent from an average of seven before the change was implemented in 2014 to just two during the school year in 2015.

Safety engineers from the city installed new pedestrian crossing lights, zebra crosswalks, driver feedback signs to mitigate speeding, and reflective poles on stop signs across 12 schoolzones over the summer.

The upgrades were part of the city's Vision Zero strategy – a long-term goal to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries on city roads.

Full Story (Metro Edmonton)

 

[Daveography]

City makes Edmonton roads safer
November 14, 2016

Media are invited to join Councillor Bev Esslinger as she highlights projects completed by the City in 2016 to make Edmonton roads safer. She will also explain how the Vision Zero Edmonton goal is changing the City’s approach to roadway safety planning.

Date: November 15, 2016
Time:
9 a.m.
Location: 109 Street & 85 Avenue
Suggested parking at Garneau Pub parking lot (look for the Plato’s Pizza sign, across from McDonalds)

edmonton.ca/visionzero/

Media contact:
Maya Filipovic
Communications
780-496-4684

http://www.mailoutinteractive.com/Industry/View.aspx?id=862701&q=1114483303&qz=a6c209

 

[Daveography]

City invests in safer roads
More than 30 City intersections are safer, thanks to upgrades made as part of Vision Zero Edmonton.

Intersection improvements in 2016 included upgrades to 13 pedestrian crosswalks (new pedestrian crossing lights or retrofits to existing pedestrian signals), installation of 15 turn-on-the-arrow-only left-turn signals, and redesign of three right-turn channels. Installation of more than 50 new driver feedback signs to tell drivers their speed, and upgrades in 13 school zones were also completed. Funding for these roadway safety upgrades came from the Traffic Safety Reserve Fund.

“The City created safer roads for all users by implementing upgrades,” said Bev Esslinger, Councillor for Ward 2. “Each one of these changes means that more Edmontonians will make it home safely at the end of each day.”

The roadway improvements were selected and prioritized based on an ongoing review of collision data by planners and engineers. Planning for 2017 improvements is now underway.

“Although infrastructure changes take time, I am proud of what we accomplished in this first year since we adopted Vision Zero Edmonton,” said Esslinger. “Safety is a shared responsibility between those who design and build the roads and those who use them.”

Vision Zero Edmonton’s long-term goal is zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries.
The 2016 road safety projects are posted on edmonton.ca.

Media contact:
Gary Dyck
Communications
780-496-1778

http://www.mailoutinteractive.com/Industry/View.aspx?id=862704&q=1114893908&qz=850aab

 

[Daveography]

5 ways Edmonton says it's made roads safer after Vision Zero
The city is releasing details on new pedestrian safety measures it’s created since launching Vision Zero. So far it says it has improved 30 intersections by redesigning right lane turn-offs, installing flashing pedestrian signage or improving sign visibility. But Dr. Darren Markland, a critical care physician at the Royal Alex who’s criticized the city's slow action on Vision Zero, said Tuesday the new measures are a first step, but more is needed, like redesigned intersections, narrow streets and protected crosswalks.

Full Story (Metro Edmonton)

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton city council reopens debate over neighbourhood speed limits
Community advocates pushing for lower speed limits on residential roads scored a major win Wednesday, with Edmonton voting to formally reopen the debate.

Several community groups have lobbied for 30-km/h to 40-km/h limits on local residential roads. The city will undertake a formal public consultation to see if residents agree.

It would be a citywide change, a departure from the current approach that requires neighbourhoods to secure two-thirds support from residents before their community has a speed limit of 40 km/h.

“We either have to be city wide or not at all,” said Coun. Andrew Knack, who introduced the motion Wednesday at urban planning committee

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton makes it easier for neighbourhoods to lower speed limits
Edmonton has officially dropped what advocates call a nearly impossible requirement for neighbourhood speed limit campaigns.

For years, it seemed Edmonton’s speed reduction program was written specifically to discourage applications. It required a 100-per-cent response rate to a survey asking neighbourhood residents if they would vote Yes or No to a 40 km/h speed limit.

In the future, the response requirement will only be 30 per cent, with two-thirds in support of the change, according to a private memo to council from transportation operations branch manager Gord Cebryk.

The 100-per-cent response rate — which theoretically includes landlords living out of town or even out of the country — “was very difficult to achieve,” said Cebryk. He was unavailable for further comment Monday.

“It looked to us like it was intentionally difficult,” said Allan Bolstad, former executive director of the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...sier-for-neighbourhoods-to-lower-speed-limits

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton's downtown bike grid to include safety payoffs for pedestrians
Edmonton’s downtown bike grid will finally usher the area’s traffic signals into the 21st century, say officials giving a year-end update on the high-profile project.

That could pay off in ways completely unrelated to cycling.

For motorists, the new $4.5-million signalling system will be able to detect if there are vehicles waiting to use a long advance green, for example. If no vehicle is there, the system will cut off the advance phase and give the right-of-way to other traffic.

It can also handle more complex signal phases, giving buses or pedestrians a head start where appropriate.

That means bus drivers won’t have to turn left through crosswalks filled with pedestrians — a move that caused three fatal collisions since 2011. The bus drivers could get a separate light, or at least the pedestrians could get a few seconds head start to increase visibility and keep them from tracking in the buses’ large blind spot.

The problem is many of the current downtown signals are 20 years old — dinosaurs in the traffic-signal world — and can’t handle much more than a simple green-yellow-red sequence.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...afety-payoffs-for-pedestrians?__lsa=e05e-fb74

 

[Daveography]

This is frustrating, because it should have been a good change, but sounds like Transportation messed up the implementation, and/or has not been receptive to tweaking it based on feedback. I still wonder if they set these trials up to fail; it wouldn't surprise me given the history and culture of that department...

Concrete barriers designed to prevent city fatalities hamper access to homes
Residents are calling a pilot study that involves surrounding the intersection at 116 Street and 77 Avenue with concrete barriers “a solution looking for a problem” that is causing more harm to their community than good.

“I think they are ridiculous. It’s a total solution looking for a problem,” said Garnett Workun, whose home overlooks the intersection.

“They are destroying the neighbourhood,” said Debby Waldman, who has lived on the opposite side of the intersection for 21 years. “They are making it very difficult for me to get in and out of my house, they are going to make it impossible for my elderly, handicapped, mobility-challenged relatives to get into my house.”

As part of a neighbourhood renewal project planned for the neighbourhoods of McKernan and Belgravia in the spring and summer of 2017, city engineers are looking into narrowing and redesigning what is now an oddly shaped intersection at 116 Street and 77 Avenue to better direct the flow of vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...revent-city-fatalities-hamper-access-to-homes

 

[Daveography]

Pedestrian shift challenges Edmonton's 'beg buttons' and traffic signals
Activists call them “beg buttons” — the pedestrian signal lights that never give a walk sign until a person hits the button and waits.

It’s a major irritant for Edmonton’s pedestrian subculture, especially on popular bus routes where people watch their bus pull up, stop and drive off before the long cycle finishes and the walk light turns on.

In Edmonton, people trying to walk or bike wait up to two minutes to cross in many locations, and as they shiver in the cold, many feel there’s a disconnect between the walkable culture Edmonton says it celebrates and the reality on the ground.

“I’ve counted. Pedestrians are given exactly seven seconds to begin to legally cross the the intersection of 78 Avenue along Calgary Trail,” said Julie Kusiek, who crosses there regularly with her children. After seven seconds, the red hand starts flashing and its a several-minute wait for the next signal.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...ges-edmontons-beg-buttons-and-traffic-signals

 

[Daveography]

Stuck with a walker: Pedestrian lights near Edmonton seniors centres first to get review
Edmonton’s pedestrian challenges don’t seem frivolous outside a seniors’ home.

Outside 210-unit Pleasantview Place, Nina Bjur watches her neighbours push walkers far out onto busy residential streets to get around puddles.

Winnie Kavanagh often walks the block to Southgate Mall, but scrambles to get across 51 Avenue before the light changes.

“In the winter, when there’s a lot of snow and ice, I have to walk slower,” she said, worried a fall could break her hip and send her health downhill. That’s what happened before her sister died, but not walking outside leaves her depressed.

A growing number of people are calling for Edmonton to become a city that’s easier and safer to walk in. Coun. Michael Walters said he and city officials created a pilot project last fall, getting several transportation operations staff to walk the sidewalks around Pleasantview Place. They documented trip hazards on the sidewalk, poor drainage and that short signal light at 51 Avenue.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...-edmonton-seniors-centres-first-to-get-review

 

[Daveography]

Iveson calls for Vision Zero re-launch; focus on people first
Mayor Don Iveson called for a re-launch of the city’s contentious Vision Zero traffic safety project Wednesday.

Speaking at a conference in Sherwood Park, Iveson said now’s the time to “build the kind of streets that serve people, particularly the most vulnerable road users."

Vision Zero is the city's long-term plan to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero. Some have said Edmonton has focused too much on drivers, a criticism Iveson acknowledged Wednesday.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmont...sion-zero-relaunch-focus-on-people-first.html

Edmonton mayor turns sights back on pedestrian safety initiatives
Most of Edmonton’s focus has been on reducing vehicle-to-vehicle collisions through photo-radar speed enforcement, adding separate left-turn phases to intersection traffic lights and taking out hard-to-navigate right-turn bypass lanes.

Its most visible pedestrian-focused moves have been education campaigns calling on people who walk to wear reflective clothing and not jaywalk.

Pedestrian advocates called that “victim blaming.” They want engineering solutions to make crosswalks more visible, protected bike lanes and narrower roads to reduce crossing distances.

Iveson’s solutions might also include reducing speed limits in pedestrian areas and extending the walk light for seniors. It will include “improving intersection design for the benefit of those who aren’t protected by airbags and a steel cage.”

Iveson said Edmonton’s traffic safety and other engineering work uses outdated thinking.

“Our noble attempt to balance the needs of all our roadway uses — including cars, buses, trucks, bikes and pedestrians — hasn’t always worked,” he said.

“Balance is an unhelpful concept that we should reconsider entirely,” he said. “We need to start by recognizing some users are more vulnerable than others.”

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...-to-weigh-in-on-disputed-vision-zero-approach

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton parents start blog to shine light on pedestrian deaths
Three years since the death of their son David, Jane Cardillo and Steve Finkelman decided to display his guitar in their living room.

A driver killed David Finkelman, a free-spirited 27-year-old musician, while he walking in a crosswalk on Whyte Avenue in January 2014.

“It was the right time to bring out the guitar. Before, we just couldn’t do it. It brings so much energy into the room. It feels like his life is in this room,” Jane said.

“Having lost David, we lost our life. It’s kind of been a rough ride for us.”

They also started a blog, Voices for Traffic Safety YEG, in late January to mark the third anniversary of his death, putting names and faces to the issue of pedestrians fatalities in Edmonton.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmont...blog-to-shine-light-on-pedestrian-deaths.html

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton crosswalk fixes require $45 million, with 70 spots in urgent need: report
Of the 380 crosswalks in Edmonton needing $45 million in upgrades, 70 crosswalks are considered a high priority.

The numbers are set to be presented to the city’s community public services committee Monday, after Coun. Bryan Anderson asked about crosswalk upgrades and how much can be funded from photo radar.

For 2017-18, council approved funding for 15 pedestrian amber flashers and pedestrian actuated signals per year.

Upgrading the 70 priority locations would cost $8.5 million. On top of those 70 crosswalks, other enhancements over a three-year period — such as curb extensions, medians and lighting improvements — would cost an estimated $500,000.

Council directed $7 million into pedestrian safety infrastructure from 2015 to 2018. About $4 million remains unallocated for 2017-18, Gerry Shimko, Edmonton’s executive director of the Office of Traffic Safety, said Thursday.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...5-million-with-70-spots-in-urgent-need-report

 

[Seandroid]

They desperately need to move the crosswalk on the south side of Stadium station, or put a sidewalk on the west side of the road. If you want to head to the southwest, but you want to take the crosswalk, you have to backtrack, cross the street, walk toward your destination and then cross the street again. Almost nobody crosses at the crosswalk because it's so poorly placed, everyone just walks across the road directly in front of the station exit.

 

[Daveography]

Dramatic decrease in Whyte Avenue crosswalk complaints after flashing crossing lights installed
There has been a substantial drop in complaints regarding the crosswalk at Whyte Avenue and 102 Street after the city installed a solar-powered crossing light with flashing LED lights.

The pilot project, which also includes lights at Saskatchewan Drive and two locations at Donald Massey School, started in January 2016 and recently wrapped up.

READ MORE: Edmonton launches solar powered crossing lights in pilot project

Speaking in regards to the installation at Whyte Avenue, Gerry Shimko, the executive director of the city’s Office of Traffic Safety, said there were 17 requests for a review of the crosswalk from 2012 to 2015. That number dropped to only one in 2016.

“We are certainly looking at that as an additional protection in our pedestrian crosswalk safety continuum. These have some really good uses in various areas so we’re looking at it in particular in this location,” Shimko said.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3304985/d...nts-after-flashing-crossing-lights-installed/