Public works department ordered to develop road-safety strategy for Winnipeg

‘No deaths are acceptable,’ city told

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-looking-at- ways-to-eliminate-traffic-fatalities-410325025.html

A CIVIC committee instructed the administration Tuesday to develop a road-safety strategy designed to eliminate all traffic fatalities.

“No deaths are acceptable,” said Coun. Marty Morantz, chairman of council’s public works committee.

“We need to be striving towards zero (fatalities).”

Prompted by a proposal from Coun. Janice Lukes, the committee instructed the public works department to develop a strategy designed to eliminate all traffic fatalities on Winnipeg streets.

Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) said she was pleased the committee endorsed her suggestion, adding she expects it will involve a public consultation process and a greater emphasis by the city to improve existing roadways identified as problematic.

Lukes had been pushing city hall to adopt a Swedish strategy, known as Vision Zero, which has been embraced by many countries and other Canadian municipalities.

However, at the suggestion of Morantz, the committee wants city staff to develop a strategy based on a federal government initiative, known as Towards Zero, which is also based on the Swedish initiative.

Lukes dismissed the significance of the name change, adding the objective is the same — to eliminate traffic fatalities.

“Road safety is extremely serious,” Lukes said Officials in the public works department said it will take at least a year to develop the strategy, which Morantz said he hoped will eventually be adopted and approved by city council.

City staff said Winnipeg already follows international best practices when it comes to designing roadways and the proof is the number of traffic fatalities on city streets compared with the rest of the province.

Luis Escobar, the city’s manager of transportation, said while the majority of the provincial population resides in Winnipeg, the city has only a small portion of traffic deaths.

Manitoba Public Insurance said there were 112 traffic fatalities across the province in 2016, with 20 of those occurring in Winnipeg. For 2015, there were 79 traffic fatalities provincewide, with 13 deaths in Winnipeg.

Data provided by Manitoba Public Insurance shows while the province averaged 79 traffic deaths annually from 2010 to 2014, Winnipeg averaged 15 traffic deaths during the same time period.

“We are doing a lot of things to improve road safety, and that’s reflected in the level of injury and level of fatality compared to other cities across Canada,” Escobar told the public works committee.

He said the city and city staff are members of national and international road safety committees Lukes is holding a public seminar on traffic safety at the end of themonth at the Millennium Library.

She’s bringing in experts to talk about the Swedish plan and what steps cities need to take in roadway design and other initiatives to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca