Traffic safety and dangerous driving behaviours are some of the top issues that I hear from residents across Ward Karhiio. We hear from:

Seniors concerned about crosswalk visibility,
Young families sharing their children’s experiences travelling to school,
Residents worried about speeding and pedestrian safety, and
Community leagues advocating for the needs of your neighbourhoods.

To support our shared goal of safer, more livable streets, the City adopted Vision Zero back in 2015. The concept of Vision Zero “to achieve zero traffic-related serious injuries and fatalities” has been adopted in cities globally, from San Francisco, to Vancouver, to cities in England and Australia.

To help us reach Vision Zero, the City has implemented numerous programs under our Safe Mobility Strategy. We have also adapted how our streets are planned, designed, built, activated and maintained. Collectively, these efforts have seen a reduction of 25% in traffic-related fatalities to date.

This is why it is so critical to invest in making our streets friendlier for all users and keep people moving safely, especially as we welcome more people (and cars) to Edmonton.

In this blog, I want to highlight specific initiatives in Ward Karhiio that have helped to support safer streets, along with some of the challenges we experience like the restricting of tools such as automated enforcement.

The Safe Crossing Program

The Safe Crossing Program helps make our streets more connected and accessible. I hear from residents regularly about crossings which make them feel unsafe due to the lack of infrastructure like a Rapid Flashing Beacon - it's one of our top requests. When assessing a space for a new or upgraded crossing, the Traffic Safety team considers factors like:

Lived Experience (report your experience or concerns about unsafe crossings through 311);
The number of people walking, cycling, driving and using mobility aids;
Crash history at the location;
Proximity to other safe location crossings;
Roadway characteristics (like the number of lanes, speed limit, presence of a median, etc);
Future growth through modeling and plans like the City Plan.

In 2024 in Ward Karhiio saw over 20 Safe Crossing upgrades, ranging from Overhead Amber Flashers along 66 Street, to a new full signal on Parsons Road. You can find a full map of all 2025 (and proposed 2025/2026) Safe Crossing Projects here.

Towards 40 program

The Towards 40 Program just launched in Ward Karhiio this September, targeting the Walker and Charlesworth neighbourhoods. Towards 40 is a program that focuses on improving road conditions on streets that are ‘low compliance’ - this means roads where the default 40 km/hr speed limit is regularly violated.

Similar to other interventions, the City uses the lived experiences of residents (gathered through in-person and virtual engagement) and technical data to implement adaptable interventions that can encourage safe driving behaviour. With adaptable interventions, we can test ideas and improve safety until permanent infrastructure can be installed.

When our team was door knocking in Charlesworth this summer, residents frequently shared about speeding on 54 Street / 4 Ave, particularly as drivers go to access neighbouring commercial areas. I’m glad to see this project underway, with the support of residents, that will make this area safer for all who use it.

You can follow along with the Towards 40 program, including future engagement and evaluation, by subscribing to my e-newsletter, or at www.edmonton.ca/Towards40Projects.

The Street Lab Program

The Street Lab Program is entering its 4th year of bringing residents and the City to work together and collaborate on traffic safety improvements.

In Ward Karhiio we have had Street Labs initiated in Summerside and the Orchards. In the Orchards, interventions like two-stage crossings, centre medians, and curb extensions were selected and tailored to meet the needs of the community. In Summerside, speed humps were installed along a large stretch of Summerside Grande Blvd based on local feedback.

I hosted a Facebook Live last year with Juanita, one of the residents involved in the Street Lab in Summerside, and Christie, the director of Safe Mobility - you can check out the whole conversation in our summary blog here.

In the past, due to the heavy involvement of community members required for this project, residents have had to apply for a Street Lab to come to their neighbourhood. This will be changing in 2025, and we will share more information on future Street Lab locations soon in my e-newsletter.

A Street Lab Intervention in the Orchards.

School Safety Upgrades

One of our most vulnerable road users are children, who commonly use active methods to get to and from schools. We hear from a lot of parents, Edmonton School Boards, families and students themselves about the need for encouraging safer behaviours.

For schools, there are a few targeted initiatives the City has implemented:

The School Safety Program offers upgrades like zebra crossings, stop signs, flashing beacons, pavement markings and more to increase safety and support active transportation around schools.
The Safe Routes to School Program improves safety along common routes to school that go beyond just the immediate roads surrounding the school space. This makes it an easier choice for students and families to walk, bike and roll to school, or to nearby playgrounds.
Vision Zero School Kits engage students and schools in learning more about traffic safety, and raising awareness in their community through projects like DIY signs designed by children. This year, as part of this program, two schools in Ward Karhiio also helped to design Vibrant Crosswalks, which are now installed to help support better crossings.

Challenges facing Vision Zero

All of this work needs resources which include a team of traffic safety engineers, community activators, analysts and researchers, along with any physical infrastructure installed.

Traffic safety programs are funded primarily by the Traffic Safety Automated Enforcement Fund. The money from each automated enforcement ticket from speeding or running a red-light is split with the City, the Province, and the Victims of Crime Fund with the police. The City puts our portion of the funding back into our streets by supporting programs that actively improve safety for Edmontonians. In the last 2023-2026 Budget cycle, City Council also approved additional funding to expand Vision Zero.

However, the guidelines around Automated Traffic Enforcement are governed by the Province, not cities. Recently, the Alberta Government proposed more changes to the Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) Guidelines, which includes photo radar and intersection cameras. These changes further limit or restrict certain roads from Automated Traffic Enforcement even if they are selected based on data and evidence, and help to reduce speeding. Overall, the legislation changes can severely impact resources for our Safe Mobility programs and policing, taking away a critical tool in our tool belt for safer roads and hampering the strides we have made. With less automated options, it would increase the need for more staffed enforcement to support traffic safety, removing officers from other pressing public safety issues. In my opinion, this is not the best use of limited resources.

The safety of our streets is a shared responsibility of all road users. For some changes in our neighbourhoods, it’ll take time to adjust as we learn to change our behaviours. It’ll take all of us working together to achieve the same goal - a City where people are able to move safely whether they are driving, walking, rolling, cycling, or taking transit., I look forward to a day when we can happily share that we have achieved our Vision Zero goal.