Ahead of an enforcement blitz next week, the City of London and London Police Service held a demonstration on intersection safety for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles alike.
Next week’s blitz is part of a month-long Vision Zero initiative involving the city and London Middlesex Road Safety Committee. Vision Zero is a global movement dedicated to ultimately reducing the total number of traffic collisions to absolutely zero.
“We know that intersections are a hot spot. They were identified during our strategy as a place where a lot of collisions happen,” said Doug MacRae, director of roads and transportation with the city.
“In the last five years, we’ve had 371 Londoners walking in the area of intersections hit by cars. In that same five years, we’ve had 193 cyclists in the area of intersections hit by cars. We know that over half of those collisions are when vehicles are turning.”
At Thursday morning’s demonstration at Oxford and Richmond streets, Const. D’Arcy Bruce explained the importance of eye contact and scanning the intersection to help keep intersections safe.
He noted some of the common dangers for those approaching intersections.
“People not really paying attention to the lights, pedestrians trying to beat the hand signal or not paying attention, using their phones and then stepping out into traffic, motorists not paying attention and watching out for cyclists who also have a right to the roadways.”
WATCH (Aug. 21, 2019): Durham Regional Police hand out nearly 20 distracted driving tickets in safety blitz
MacRae added that in addition to education, the city has taken other steps to reduce intersection collisions.
“We’ve been implementing pedestrian crossovers quite aggressively across the entire city to help give pedestrians the right of way and help them cross roads more safely. Audible pedestrian signals: we’ve gone out in a proactive manner and implemented them to help the visually impaired pedestrians.”
Red Light Cameras have also been introduced in an effort to cut down on that roughly 280 collisions per year tied to running a red light. The city also plans to add more “advance street name signs” which provide drivers with more time to make lane changes or route decisions in hopes of reducing “way-finding related crashes” at or near intersections.
–with files from 980 CFPL’s Andrew Graham.
Comments