City of Toronto commits an additional $13 million to road safety actions
Mayor John Tory has announced the City of Toronto will be committing an additional $13 million to the Vision Zero Road Safety plan this year from the city’s 2017 budget surplus.
This will bring the city’s total five-year Vision Zero investment to $100 million.
This announcement follows a mass die-in that took place at Nathan Phillips Square Friday morning, where cyclists demanded an end to fatalities of vulnerable road users including pedestrians and cyclists.
“I have been horrified by the deaths of pedestrians and cyclists in Toronto. Over the past few days, we have once again seen how dangerous and deadly our streets can be,” said Mayor Tory in a statement.
“I will be directing as much as possible from the city’s budget surplus to further accelerate and intensify the rollout of our road safety measures on our streets.”
The additional $13 million to the Vision Zero plan will allow the city to complete the following road safety measures:
- Speeding up road redesign initiatives
- Doubling the number of leading pedestrian intervals being installed this year from 40 to 80
- Installing zebra markings at up to 200 additional intersections
- Clearing the backlog of speed hump installations
- Enhancing bike lanes along our 10 main cycling corridors including painting green lanes through intersections so drivers will have a visual reminder that there is a bike lane running right through the intersection and they must be alert
Mayor Tory also asked city staff to use the accelerated funding for as many safety measures as possible.
He will be meeting with staff on a regular basis to ensure this work is continuing and that the city is continuing to do all it can to make the streets safer.
“This week, I also had several meetings with city staff and delivered a clear and unequivocal message: do everything possible as quickly as possible to make our streets safer,” said Mayor Tory.
In 2018, the city invested $21 million on Vision Zero initiatives and $87 million will go to the program over five years.
Since last year, the city has already completed the following actions under the plan:
- Launched the school safety zones and senior safety zones
- Installed almost 100 signalized intersections with longer pedestrian crossing times and 74 new red-light cameras
- 28 intersections underwent physical changes, including curb radius reductions and intersection re-alignments, to reduce the distance that pedestrians have to cross the road and help reduce aggressive driving
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