Grey County is looking to see how its road standards stack up to a ‘Vision Zero’ approach to safety.
Members of the Kimberley Safety Group made a presentation to Grey County council Thursday (Jan 11th) that outlined a Vision Zero approach. Its goal is to have zero road related deaths.
The movement supports the belief that deaths are never acceptable, injuries are preventable, all people have the right to use the roads and designing them with only vehicles in mind is not ideal. They say roads should be designed for all users whether that’s pedestrians, cyclists, buggies, children or seniors
The presentation by group members Dr. Martha Rogers and Peter French notes that people make mistakes but safety considerations should be mindful of that.
The Kimberley Safety Group’s presentation says ‘vision zero’ requires leadership, commitment, collaboration, safe systems, safe speeds, safe roads and safe road users.
They say those can be achieved through the design of roads, driver awareness strategies, traffic calming tactics, signage, research based speeds, enforcement which could be in policing, automated enforcement or self regulation, driver and truck driver training, public education and public health campaigns.
Their presentation noted the Vision Zero approach has seen success in Edmonton, New York, Sweden and the Netherlands.
They told council the expectation isn’t to change roads at once, but to apply a safety lens that considers vision zero when designing roads and services.
Presenters also talked about Complete Streets Policies which aim to make streets friendly to all users and have been adopted in numerous cities in Canada and the United States.
Council passed a motion directing transportation staff to bring back a report about how Grey County currently considers road safety and how it aligns with Vision Zero.
