We’ve written about City of Vancouver Councillor Pete Fry’s motion asking that Council support a resolution to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities to lobby the Province to amend the Motor Vehicle Act “to a default speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour for local streets with municipalities enabled to increase speed limits on local streets in a case-by-case basis by by-laws and posted signage.” Local streets refer to streets within a neighbourhood and not to streets that are arterials or residential collector streets with a yellow line down the center.

Councillor Fry has also requested that staff identify an area of Vancouver to pilot a 30 km/h speed limit, report back on the strategy, and implement the slower speed in that neighbourhood area to ascertain the effectiveness of the policy. That demonstration project within a neighbourhood would give citizens a litmus test of what changes when streets slow, and how pedestrians, seniors, rollers and cyclists might use the street space differently.

This is all well and good, and certainly follows practice internationally where the adoption of slower speeds on streets not only contributes to reduced fatalities and serious injuries. but also creates a new sense of livability, where stick hockey games can happen in the street, neighbours can stroll, and community conversations can occur. In Canada one-quarter of all Canadians will be seniors by 2030, and keeping seniors fit, engaged and active fits into slower streets that encourage walkability. In a place like Vancouver where there is pressure to create more rental housing and forgo some of the amenities that developers are normally asked for, slowing neighbourhood streets provides a low-cost way to enhance public environments. It is simply the right thing to do, and adds an element of safety on dark wintry rainy months.

So it was a surprise when Councillor Fry’s motion was being discussed at Council that a few NPA councillors clearly did not understand that slower neighbourhood streets are not just about fatalities and serious injuries, but  are about making a commitment to a quality of neighbourhood street life in a densifying city.

Given the fact that Council had just heard a presentation on resilient cities and had a motion to have 2/3 of all trips in Vancouver by active transportation or transit by 2030 it just made sense to slow neighbourhood streets. Instead these councillors positionally stated that serious accidents and fatalities did not happen on neighbourhood streets, the kind of conditioned protective response to motordom that has shaped the 20th century.

As Wanyee Li in The Star noted both Edmonton and Calgary are reviewing lowering speed to 30 km/h. Toronto reduced speed in downtown neighbourhood streets to 30 km/h in 2015. Councillor Fry’s motion is elegant in that by  asking the Province to grant municipalities “the power to establish speed limits for a certain category of streets or entire neighbourhoods” it does away with the need to sign each street.

This change to 30 km/h has been proposed before by the City of New Westminster and Councillor Patrick Johnstone a few years back to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities. But perhaps the time has come to be more serious about creating slower streets and more cohesive neighbourhoods.

Adrienne Tanner in the Globe and Mail writes: “Vancouver should follow the lead of other cities and embrace the slow-driving movement. In fact, why not take Mr. Fry’s motion a step further? Let’s dispense with the pilot project and drop the speeds on all residential streets. Even better, the province could take the initiative and save everyone the trouble of pushing for something that so obviously should be done.”

As only The Onion can report, they have narrowed down how pedestrians can stay safe crossing roads. While it is a spoof, it is telling.

Pedestrian  Adam Hartsell in Chicago “reportedly made sure to look up at the driver of an approaching vehicle Thursday to ensure they would feel extra guilty in the event they failed to stop and ran him over. “

The 26-year-old pedestrian has two approaches walking across intersections~ he “emphasized the importance of not only locking eyes with each and every oncoming driver, but also delivering a hard stare that conveys a stern moral appraisal of any who would not brake their vehicle in time. “

“In this way, I will be able to haunt their dreams long after they’ve struck and killed me. If I have enough time, I also make sure to look any passengers dead in the eyes, so that they, too, will be hounded for years by debilitating remorse. It’s important to take these small precautions.”

When talking about pedestrian environments I am referring to walkable, inviting places that include the most vulnerable in our communities~the very young, the disenfranchised, those with mobility challenges, and the elderly. This is accessible mobility for everyone in the pedestrian environment.

Why is it so challenging to maintain good walking environments with smooth, continuous sidewalk, curb cuts correctly formed in the right locations at intersections, lots of visual interest and places to go to and through? Why do these pedestrian environments, which are proven to be great for enhancing retail’s bottom line seen as an add on in Council reports, instead of having their own distinct plan?  Enhancing accessible walkability keeps communities fit, connected, social, and wards off a host of mental and physical disease, and are sustainable. Research done by  the esteemed Dr. Larry Frank at the University of British Columbia shows that even people in suburban communities want to live close to schools, shops and services, and will accept a smaller house size to live in those kind of communities.

That is why it is so important to stay ahead of trends such as  dockless scooter rentals which are relatively cheap to rent, and can be abandoned when able-bodied riders can get to their destination. Wheelchairtravel.org says it best:  “These next-gen “Bird droppings” litter America’s sidewalks and frequently block wheelchair users’ independence and freedom of movement.”

For sidewalk users who do not have the ability to go around  these items or are thwarted in moving them, scooters are a huge problem. Children, seniors and people with vision impairment will have these items as a trip hazard.

“Now is the time for local governments to regulate the conditions of their use and placement. Stiff penalties for blocking sidewalks should be instituted and riders prohibited from operating scooters on sidewalks. Safety is as much a concern as accessibility”.

Go and take a look at what has happened in San Francisco. I have written about  how scooters now litter public places and how important it is for the City of Vancouver to get ahead of the curve and ensure that regulation is in place to limit scooters from littering the sidewalks.

Those regulations need to be strong~in Austin Texas the scooter company has four hours to move a scooter blocking the public sidewalk right of way. That is too long. I was in Zurich last summer where strict regulation means no scooters can be parked on any public sidewalk or pedestrian place anytime.

This also comes back to the importance of recognizing the public sidewalk system, with its complexity of users of differing abilities as worthy of having its own standing committee of Council, reviewing each and every report that impacts the walkable public realm. It is time to recognize and embrace accessible walkability as the foundation to community making, and recognize that accordingly in our municipal committees.

Images Vox.com Hoodline.com

We’re seeing more and more examples of cities and neighbourhood groups just getting it done on streets with cans of good latex paint.

There is absolutely no doubt that paint is the most inexpensive way to change the nature of the street, expand pedestrian refuge areas, and make crosswalks more visible for pedestrians and vehicles alike.

In her groundbreaking book Streetfight, Janette Sadik-Khan points out that making infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists makes good economic sense, contributing to the street life in the city. She also argues that everything New York City needed in order to create 60 pedestrian plazas, 180 acres of new public space and 400 miles of bike lanes was all in the city yards — paint, bollards, and cement planters.

That’s why it’s wonderful to see NYC’s examples of paint-and-planters replicated elsewhere.

In Bukchon-Ro in Seoul, a traffic circle was painted in the middle of the street, separating this historic area from a commercial district. Simply painting this image caused vehicles to proceed more slowly and enabled the many pedestrians — visiting local galleries, tea houses and cafes — to cross more safely. Paint established “pedestrian priority streets”, and has helped make the streets more walkable and lively.

The town of Mandan, North Dakota, with a population of 22,000 and located just across the Missouri river from the state capitol of Bismarck, is doing the same thing. City planner John van Dyke got it right by installing three temporary painted traffic circles at intersections, calling it a “demonstration project”, and inviting public response to the changes.

Mandan also added temporary curb extensions using bollards to make a shorter crosswalk distance for pedestrians. You can see the reporting of the local news station on the temporary traffic circles here.

images-sandy james & pininterest.com

Walk Metro Vancouver has just returned from a week in Switzerland driving across the country. There is a major difference in driving in Switzerland~speed cameras are everywhere~on local streets, at the entrances to small towns, and on every major highway. The fines for speeding are steep~drive 6 to 10 km/h over the speed limit and you are looking at a fine of 100 Swiss Francs, roughly equivalent to $135 Canadian dollars. Increase that to driving 16 to 20 km/h over the posted speed limit and you are looking at a whopping 250 Swiss Francs, in the $330 Canadian dollar range. You can take a look at the speeding fine structure and how easy it is to lose your licence by speeding here.

Between 2001 and 2006 Switzerland enforced speed limits resulted in a fatality decrease of 15%  per year, bringing road deaths down from 71 to 31. Enforced slower speeds (the maximum travel speed is 120 km/h and that is rigidly enforced) has made Swiss motorways the safest according to the European Transport Safety Council. The roads are also easier to drive on, with consistent motorist behaviour and plenty of reaction time due to the speed conformity on the motorways.

A  poll conducted by Mario Canseco shows that 70% of  people in British Columbia are now supportive of the use of a camera system similar to the Swiss to enforce road speed limits in this province.

In the online survey of a representative sample of British Columbians, seven-in-ten residents (70%) approve of the use of speed-on-green cameras, or red light cameras that also capture vehicles that are speeding through intersections. Automated speed enforcement works by using cameras or sensors to pick up a vehicle speeding. A ticket is then issued to the owner of the vehicle. Driver’s license points are not issued as the driver of the vehicle cannot be identified.

The provincial government announced last fall that red light cameras located at 140 intersections would record 24 hours a day. In the fall, the provincial government is expected to announce the number and locations of cameras that would be used to identify speeding vehicles.

The use of fixed speed cameras, mobile speed cameras (that could be moved from place to place) and “point to point” speed enforcement were also favoured by the majority of survey respondents.

“There is high support for all four types of automated speed enforcement across the province,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “Point-to-point enforcement is the most contentious of all four, with more than a third of residents disapproving of its use.”

Studies clearly show that enforcing speed saves lives. It is time to think of driving  to a destination based upon travelling at uniform and consistent speeds and emphasizing the safety of the journey  over the speed by which the journey is made. The Canseco survey illustrates that the majority of British Columbians agree with this premise, which only makes sense with a provincially run vehicle  insurance program and with universal health care covering the huge costs of road injuries.  You can view Research Co’s data findings here.

Image: CBC

Increasing speed limits on several British Columbia highways caused  carnage and a higher accident rate and was a  failed experiment of the previous Liberal Provincial government. It has  already been written about the 118 percent increase in road deaths and 43 percent increase in vehicular claims received by ICBC, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. With higher speed limits implemented in 2014, the past Provincial government was not nimble in addressing the increasing road deaths and insurance claims as reported by researchers.

Claire Trevena, the Minister of Transportation for the Province has now announced an immediate decrease in speed limits on fifteen highway segments based upon a review of the serious and fatal crashes that have occurred in the past three years. These lower speed limits will be on the Sea to Sky Highway, the Okanagan Connector, the Island Highway and some sections of Highway 1.

The Minister also connected the lower speed limits to reducing the incidence of speed related crashes.

“We are making every effort now … to make sure that people can travel safely on our highways. Nobody should be dying on our highways.”

The change to lower speed limits will mean that 570 kilometers of highway will need to have speed limit signs replaced, a task to be completed this week.

It’s no surprise that a small group of male advocates continue to press for increased speeds. They say that travelling faster is not impacted by road condition, terrain, changeable weather or shorter reaction times, and somehow feel that the increased deaths and injuries are due to other factors, such as more people travelling. It’s also no surprise that they have no statistical data to back up their claims.

In his groundbreaking report Where the Rubber Meets the Road  former B.C. Medical Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall named vehicular accidents as a major cause of death in the province, responsible for nearly 300 annual deaths.  Between 2008 and 2012 the top contributing factors to fatal crashes were speed (35.7%) distraction (28.6%) and impairment (20%). It simply makes sense to lower speeds to increase safe travel.

Lower speed limits also need to be enforced. As transportation expert Ian Fisher notes enforcement must happen to ensure speed limits are complied with, and the use of radar detectors should be banned. In an era where vehicles are full of protection systems for occupants, why do we still insist on police being vulnerable road users in stopping vehicles that are speeding? Why can we not utilise universal camera enforcement like the Swiss, who have one of the lowest fatality and crash levels in Europe? With the funding of course going back to make separated bikeways and safer pedestrian crossings at appropriate locations. What will it take? You can take a look at the speed limit roll backs below.

Speed limits are being rolled back by 10 km/h on the following highway corridors:

Highway 1: Cowichan Bay to Nanaimo — 90 km/h to 80 km/h
Highway 1: Whatcom Road to Hope — 110 km/h to 100 km/h
Highway 1: Boston Bar to Jackass Mountain — 100 km/h to 90 km/h
Highway 1: Tobiano to Savona — 100 km/h to 90 km/h
Highway 1: Chase to Sorrento — 100 km/h to 90 km/h
Highway 3: Sunday Summit to Princeton — 90 km/h to 80 km/h
Highway 7: Agassiz to Hope — 100 km/h to 90 km/h
Highway 19: Parksville to Campbell River — 120 km/h to 110 km/h
Highway 19: Bloedel to Sayward — 100 km/h to 90 km/h
Highway 97A: Grindrod to Sicamous — 90 km/h to 80 km/h
Highway 97C: Merritt to Aspen Grove — 110 km/h to 100 km/h
Highway 97C: Aspen Grove to Peachland — 120 km/h to 110 km/h
Highway 99: Horseshoe Bay to Squamish — 90 km/h to 80 km/h
Highway 99: Squamish to Whistler — 100 km/h to 90 km/h
Highway 99: Whistler to Pemberton — 90 km/h to 80 km/h
With files fro

From Halifax Nova Scotia,  The Globe and Mail reports on the “Crosswalk Safety Society” that are placing “high-visibility flags” on crosswalks where there are no crossing lights and no safety features. While staff at the Halifax Regional Municipality urged Council to get rid of these flags and create safer pedestrian crossings, council voted to continue with the flags being available at those crosswalks. And these flags are not inexpensive, with the Crosswalk Safety Society shelling out $250 to outfit each crosswalk with them.

Only 2 to 6 percent of pedestrians use these flags to wave at cars when they are crossing, and when a reporter watched an intersection for two hours, pedestrians did not use the flags at all.

The concept of intersection flags have been tested in Berkeley California and in Seattle and were dismissed as being ineffective and giving pedestrians a fake sense of confidence. It also puts the onus on the pedestrian for getting the driver’s attention and stopping a vehicle, something that should be the responsibility of the driver.  For small children, using flags is one more thing to take attention away from the important task of simply safely crossing the road.

Kudos to municipal staff in Halifax that conducted their own tests at two intersections, crossing each of them three hundred times.  “They found that drivers gave way 94 per cent of the time when flags were being carried and 89 per cent of the time at crossings where there were no flags. Driver compliance was lowest, at 86 per cent, when flags were present but not carried”.

No matter what the political reasons are for allowing a group to place flags on crosswalks, that  does not address the issue of making the street safer for pedestrians to cross. CityLab explored flags and crosswalks four years ago and concluded that asking people to carry a flag when crossing a street does not put the pedestrian first. Fort Lauderdale tried this as  “a multipronged effort to improve drivers’ awareness of laws that require them to stop at marked crosswalks”. 

What does it take to change driver behaviour at crosswalks? CityLab reports that an observational study by Active Transportation Alliance showed that only 18 percent of drivers stopped for pedestrians at marked crosswalks. Flashing lights and raised or textured crosswalks raised the stopping rate to 61 per cent. This study was done in Chicago where Illinois law requires vehicles to stop for pedestrians crossing the road.

Why do drivers not stop at crosswalks? CityLab suggests that it is not only the way streets are designed to encourage traffic flow, but also that people “don’t walk very much themselves. They don’t project themselves in the pedestrian’s frame of mind when they’re driving, because they are rarely in the pedestrian’s position at any other time.”

That response suggests that as sustainable cities encouraging aging in place and supporting active transportation that more education, enforcement of driver behaviour and speed, and better street crossing design is needed to keep the most vulnerable road users-pedestrians~safe and walking.

Unbelievably the City of Cupertino California has a video showing how flags are to be used while crossing a  street on the way to school.No surprise that the “thumbs up and down” buttons and comments have been disabled on this video.