Dec 28, 2022
By Jane Brown
Toronto is on track to see one of its lowest totals for pedestrian fatalities in more than a decade.
And this is providing a glimmer of hope that the tens of millions of dollars that have gone to the City of Toronto’s Vision Zero strategy are starting to result in meaningful change.
There is nothing to celebrate though as a total of 50 people have died on Toronto streets so far in 2022, including 22 pedestrians and one cyclist.
But if this total holds, it will be the lowest number of pedestrian deaths in Toronto in about 11 years, outside of 2020 when traffic volumes plunged during the first year of the pandemic.
City Councillor Jennifer McKelvie, who chairs the city’s infrastructure and environment committee, says she’s hopeful the recent downturn is a sign that Toronto’s much publicized Vision Zero strategy is starting to work.
It was launched in 2016, a year that saw 78 people die on city streets, including 44 pedestrians and one cyclist.
Since then, $269-million has been poured into the Vision Zero program to pay for a number of initiatives, ranging from automated speed enforcement cameras to separated bike lanes and more than 1000 new advanced walk signals for pedestrians.
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