EDMONTON — The City of Edmonton is one step closer to adopting a traffic safety policy that has a goal of seeing zero fatalities or major injuries from motor vehicle collisions.
Administration has been asked to prepare an implementation plan for “Vision Zero,” a long-term strategy aimed at making city streets safer through traffic safety initiatives, road design, speed enforcement and pedestrian safety. Lowering speed limits, particularly on residential roads, is also being look at.
“I think it’s needed now because it was needed 20 years ago,” said Gord Cebryk, branch manager of Transportation Operations with the City of Edmonton. “But we haven’t acted on it and there hasn’t been a commitment and a desire.”
“It takes a lot of people coming together and sharing ideas and moving forward.”
Steve Finkelman and Jane Cardillo spoke at Wednesday’s transportation meeting on the strategy. Their son, David Finkelman, died in January 2014 after he was struck by a vehicle while crossing Whyte Avenue in a marked crosswalk.
“I think it’s fairly obvious that something has to change,” said Finkelman. “Anyone who’s driven on our roads knows instinctively that something is wrong.
“Having gone through a horrible, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching experience like we have, we just have a different point of view.”
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Finkelman said while the city has done a great job on traffic safety, enforcement alone isn’t going to solve the problem, nor is education alone.
“You need to do all sorts of things. Some people will just wake up and go, ‘Wow, I hadn’t thought of that,'” he said. “Other people aren’t going to hear the message and it’s going to take enforcement, it’s going to take photo radar tickets, it’s going to take maybe even, hopefully demerit points, their insurance going up.”
He said drivers also need to really pay attention when they’re behind the wheel.
“People don’t drive along thinking, ‘What happens if a kid jumps out from behind that car right now? What happens if a car turns left in my path?’ They’re not thinking about that.”
“It’s a personal view, but I think that it was expressed a little bit in there that people are more aggressive behind the wheels now,” added Cardillo. “I think we’re a more car-centric society. People are trying to get to where they’re going as quickly as they can and they’re not paying attention.”
The strategy sets out targets from 2016 to 2020 and the cost is pegged at $17 million annually. Cebryk said it’s hoped the initiative will be paid for through the automated enforcement reserve.
While members of council, and Finkelman and Cardillo, realize there may be some community pushback on the cost of the initiative, they believe it’s a price worth paying.
“We’re here for David, simply for David,” said Cardillo. “If our story could save one life, if our story about our son could save one other person from being hit in a crosswalk, that would be huge.”
“Walk a year-and-a-half in our shoes. And our family’s shoes and the friends of David,” added Finkelman. “The ripple effect of one death is huge. David’s community, his friends, the music community; I mean, our lives will never be the same.
“When we say our lives are shattered, I mean that.”
A detailed report on the initiative, including a full budget outline, will be brought to council next week for approval. It will then be discussed during next year’s budget deliberations.
For more information on the Vision Zero policy, visit the City of Edmonton’s website.
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