What can Hamilton do about a deadly wave of pedestrian deaths?
They've died crossing an intersection, while walking the dog or simply standing on the sidewalk.
Eight people have been killed by vehicles in Hamilton in the first four months of this year - or just one fewer than the total in 2021, which was the deadliest year for city pedestrians in a decade.
The latest victim, Glen Clark, was struck and killed April 8 on Upper Wentworth Street. Famed conductor Boris Brott died in an apparent hit-and-run collision in the lower city days earlier.
The deadly wave of collisions has spurred community outrage, with 170 residents petitioning council Wednesday to ask for traffic calming measures and street safety audits across the entire city."
Councillors discussed the dilemma Wednesday and approved safety reviews for two notoriously collision-prone intersections. Those include the Main-King intersection at the Delta, where three pedestrians were killed in a fiery crash of a stolen vehicle last month; and Dundurn Street at Main Street West, where a 14-year-old girl was recently badly injured by a left-turning vehicle.
Ward 1 Coun. Maureen Wilson noted various intersections of Main Street across Hamilton rank among the worst for deaths and serious injuries. There is an overrepresentation of Main and there has been for some time," she said.
Ward 4 Coun. Sam Merulla called pedestrian safety truly a crisis" and pointed in particular to the growing danger of distracted drivers.
So what else can the city do to stem the tide of deadly collisions?
In a video message to residents this week, Hamilton police Chief Frank Bergen acknowledged the number of fatal pedestrian collisions is way too high" and said the service is focused on cracking down on speeding as well as distracted, drunk and aggressive driving.
He said police are working with the city to tackle the worst intersections for crashes - but enforcement is not enough.
City traffic operations head Mike Field agreed, noting many factors can contribute to fatal or injury collisions. We all have a responsibility to ensure we're behaving in a way that doesn't kill someone," he said.
The city can't do much about criminal acts, the growing size of SUVs or distracted driving.
But Hamilton did adopt a Vision Zero" program in 2019 with the stated goal of ending traffic deaths and injuries. Since then, the city has added new red-light and photo-radar cameras, built new bike lanes and cut speed limits. It's also working on a road design manual that prioritizes vulnerable road users.
Field noted crashes that injure pedestrians have dropped in recent years - but it's hard to evaluate the impact of low pandemic traffic volumes on that trend. A new analysis of collisions, with safety recommendations, comes to council in June.
Some critics, like Vision Zero Canada advocate Graham Larkin, have criticized Hamilton's program for including too much fluff" like education campaigns, rather than spending money on road redesign.
Cycling dad Tom Flood, who routinely posts photos online of unsafe traffic scenarios like cars in bike lanes, recently echoed that sentiment on Twitter. After a century-long pilot of asking drivers to drive safe, it might be time to shift our approach," he wrote.
Here are a few examples of road safety initiatives underway:
Speed limits
The city voted in 2019 to cut default speed limits on all residential streets within neighbourhoods to 40 km/h. COVID slowed the pace of work, so only 111 of 233 neighbourhoods have switched. Work is ongoing.
Why cut the limit? Ontario's chief coroner recommended cutting the default speed limit to 40 from 50 km/h as far back as 2012, noting pedestrians struck by a car at 50 km/h are twice as likely to die as those hit at the lower speed.
The North End is ahead of the curve, having switched to 30 km/h residential streets several years ago as part of a long-running safety pilot that some advocates argue Hamilton should adopt citywide.
Road redesign
Hamilton embraced a lower city system of fast-moving one-way streets in the 1950s that was geared to move car traffic as efficiently as possible. City planners today agree that is no longer the main goal - or particularly safe for residents travelling at foot or bike speed.
Hamilton is gradually reverting to two-way traffic on some streets, experimenting with road diets" to shrink car lanes on arterials like Aberdeen Avenue and adding protected bicycle lanes to major roads like Cannon and Bay streets.
But residents like Sean Hurley, who started a Facebook group where people post photos of Hamilton's frequent crashes, have argued there is plenty of room for improvement - especially when the city's literal Main Street is a five-lane, one-way licence to speed" through the lower city.
Later this year, the city will finalize a complete streets" manual meant to provide guidance on road and intersection redesigns, with the goal of prioritizing vulnerable road users."
Red-light cameras
The city installed its first two controversial red-light cameras close to 20 years ago and endured heavy criticism over the perceived cash grab." The cameras snap photos of red-light runners who then receive $325 tickets in the mail.
Today, there are 32 cameras - soon to be 42 - that not only pay for themselves but also fund new Vision Zero road safety improvements. Statistics suggest the cameras cut the number of serious T-bone collisions over time, but at least one resident has appealed the constitutional validity of the program.
The number of tickets mailed out each year - including 6,600 at the infamous Main and Dundurn intersection over three years - also suggest drivers are still all too willing to race the traffic light.
Light rail transit
It isn't a Vision Zero initiative, but Hamilton's planned $3.4-billion lower city LRT line will by default slow car traffic on a busy east-west corridor that currently includes a wide one-way stretch of King Street. It will also probably spur a doozy of a debate over whether to convert parallel Main Street to two-way car traffic.
Photo radar
The city test-drove photo radar in 18 locations last year, with cameras snapping photos of speeders who later got tickets in the mail - about 17,000 in the first four months. Council has made the program permanent, but so far will only use two roving cameras. Toronto, by contrast, has 50 in action.
Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at for The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com