Officials with Edmonton’s traffic safety office are mulling putting a stop to drivers turning right on red lights to prevent pedestrian injury.
Presenting an update of Vision Zero to the Edmonton Police Commission on Thursday, the city’s executive director of traffic safety, Gerry Shimko, said 10 of the city’s 27 traffic deaths last year involved pedestrians. Another 57 pedestrians were seriously injured. In 2017, there were a total of 3,381 traffic-related injuries.
Vision Zero is a plan to eliminate serious injury and traffic fatalities, something Edmonton hopes to do by 2032. Edmonton city council was the first in Canada adopt the Vision Zero plan in 2015.
According to city data, of the 329 fatalities and major injury collisions in 2017, 43 were caused by a driver’s failure to yield to pedestrians.
When Police Commissioner Karen MacKenzie asked whether the city had considered making right turns on a red light illegal as countries such as Ireland have done, Shimko said the city is considering it.
“They’ve noted that’s cut down the accidents and fatalities significantly,” MacKenzie said.
Shimko said there is a higher risk of drivers hitting pedestrians when vehicles don’t come to a full stop.
He added the city would first look at areas with a high number of pedestrians in the downtown and Whyte Ave. areas.
“We’re looking at the possibility of increasing those restrictions in places like downtown and Whyte Ave., where there’s a higher prevalence of pedestrians at those right turns,” Shimko said.
Last year, there were 23,855 total reported collisions. The Capital Region Intersection Safety Partnership pegged the direct cost of collisions to be more than $433 million.
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