With public concern over traffic deaths in Toronto seemingly on the rise, a coalition of advocates is hoping to make road safety a major issue in this fall’s municipal election.In a report scheduled to be released Tuesday at city hall, the advocates set out 15 recommendations they say mayoral and council candidates should adopt to protect pedestrians and cyclists.The “priority actions” range from proposals to accelerate policies council has already approved to more controversial ideas like banning right turns on red lights and lowering the default speed limit for arterial and collector roads from 50 km/h to 40 km/h. The coalition plans to send questionnaires to candidates asking which of the 15 proposals they support, and then publish the results before the Oct. 22 vote. “I think that people are just really fed up. Fed up with the amount of people that are dying in the street, to be frank,” said Amanda O’Rourke, executive director of 8 80 Cities, one of the groups behind the report. Citing a wave of recent media coverage on the issue, she said Torontonians are increasingly concerned about road safety and want their elected officials to take action.Read more: Editorial | Toronto should boost Vision Zero budget to make streets saferThese Toronto residents have tried to make streets safer. It hasn’t worked John Tory to seek another $13M for road safety plan“All of these deaths are preventable and unacceptable. We know the solutions, we know how to make our streets safer. It’s not rocket science … We just need decision-makers to do it,” she said.The city introduced new road safety plan in June 2016, but O’Rourke asserted it has yet to make meaningful progress toward its goal of eliminating traffic deaths. According to police statistics, nearly 100 pedestrians or cyclists have died since Mayor John Tory unveiled the plan, which the city has dubbed “Vision Zero” after the internationa ...
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