Toronto council to debate pedestrian safety
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 | 10:14 PM ET
CBC News
An ambulance at the scene of one of Toronto's many recent pedestrian fatalities. (CBC) After eight pedestrian deaths in two weeks Toronto city council is set to take up the issue.
Council will spend much of Wednesday debating what it can do to make Toronto streets safer.
On Monday evening a woman was killed crossing the street in the west end and a man who had been hit by a streetcar on the weekend died of his injuries.
Those deaths brought the total of pedestrian deaths in Toronto since Jan. 12 to eight. A further six pedestrians have been killed in other municipalities making up the Greater Toronto Area in that time.
Coun. Bill Saundercook, who heads the city's pedestrian committee, said Tuesday there is not one reason for the deaths - there have been different factors in every accident.
Saundercook's motion will ask all councillors to submit a list of what he calls problem streets in their wards - especially when it comes to speed.
"Our general manager of transportation will be required to report back on the streets that we suggest speed reductions for," he said.
Saundercook doesn't envision a "blanket" speed reduction. Instead he suggests "specific streets we know can be targetted because of a high volume of pedestrians - either children or seniors. It might be a park or a school, a busy commercial district. Those are the reasons we're going to ask the general manager to reduce speeds."
There are suggestions that could mean speed reductions from 60 to 50 km/h in some areas.
Saundercook also wants to explore banning turns at some city intersections, building better crosswalks and making traffic signs more visible.
