WFP: As fatalities mount, city’s road-safety strategy has stalled (Apr3'19) - AT-Network

4 Apr 2019


      *As fatalities mount, city’s road-safety strategy has stalled *
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/nothing-done-on-road-safety-strategy...
THE death toll on Winnipeg’s streets continues to mount while officials
appear unable to develop a plan to make them safe for pedestrians, cyclists
and motorists.
It’s been more than two years since the public works department was
directed to produce a road safety strategy that would strive to eliminate
traffic fatalities.
But no work has been done since the public works committee issued the
directive in January 2017, David Patman, the city’s transportation manager,
told councillors Tuesday. Department staff have been working instead on a
handful of safety measures, he said. In that time 14 pedestrians and one
cyclist have been killed in traffic collisions, as have nine people in
vehicles and two motorcycle riders.
Coun. Janice Lukes, who urged the committee to get tough on the department,
said the death toll on city streets is tragic.
“We are making record investments in roads, in transit and in active
transportation, yet we are nowhere near having a comprehensive road-safety
strategy in place,” Lukes said.
Patman told the committee turnover in two senior positions was behind the
department’s failure to begin the work, adding he expects it will get
underway and become part of an updated transportation master plan due in
three years.
Anders Swanson, executive director of Winnipeg Trails Association, said the
number of fatalities on Winnipeg streets is proof they are being designed
for the benefit of motorists, not all users.
“The reality is everybody would like to do the right thing, but only you
folks (councillors) have the political tools,” he said.
Swanson, who is participating in a panel discussion at the annual
conference of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals in
Calgary in May, said professionals aren’t designing city streets from the
perspective of people who walk or cycle, or from the perspective of a child.
“You like to blame bad behaviour for causing traffic glitches. The reality
is the same bad behaviour is the same behaviour inherent with children,” he
said.
“If we designed a public road system around children specifically, then it
would be, by definition, safe. There would be basketballs flying around,
bikes weaving in an out, there’d be three bikes riding side by side with
children laughing, giving high-fives, passing a Slurpee to each other. And
that would be OK.
“But we haven’t, and the reason we haven’t is because in 1950 or so, we got
addicted to building a city for cars, for dad driving alone to work in the
morning, and we haven’t been able to get ourselves out of that, and that’s
a conscious decision.”
Committee chairman Coun. Matt Allard said the public works department has
initiated traffic safety measures across the city and he’s confident a
report will be completed someday.
“From my experience, the public works department is really prioritizing
this in ways that I haven’t seen in the past,” Allard said.
“We have a number of things on the go. There’s a lot going on (for) road
safety and traffic calming in the city and I’m looking forward to the
reports coming down the pike.”
Allard was unable to explain how he or the department could be certain
ongoing safety initiatives meet any defined target without a strategy in
place.
“I think the public service is doing what they can to keep us safe on the
roads and they’ll be confirming that in future reports,” he said, while
acknowledging the department has yet to provide him with a comprehensive
list of safety initiatives he requested in November.
“I think you heard today we’re going above and beyond the status quo” when
it comes to road safety, Allard told reporters. “The public service is
doing their job. They are working on this.”
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca