School Safety Zones
At the beginning of this term, I spearheaded the development of Toronto’s first-ever comprehensive and city-wide Road Safety Plan. The City has now embarked on a five year commitment to make real changes to our roads to make them safer for everyone.
On the first day of school, I unveiled the City’s latest measure to improve road safety – our School Safety Zones. By the end of the year, we will have 22 School Safety Zones in place, with another 20 in 2018 and each year after that.
The School Safety Zones feature:
- New school zone safety signs with flashing beacons
- School zone pavement markings
- “Watch Your Speed” driver feedback signs
- Zebra markings at school crosswalks
Staff are also extending the coverage of enhanced pavement markings up to 250m away from schools in support of active and safe routes to school.
The prioritization of school zones are based on consultation with the Toronto District and Toronto Catholic District School Boards, local Councillors and the police and takes into consideration the number of collisions in the area and the area’s walkability index. The list of schools will be provided to the Toronto Police Services in order to increase enforcement.
As you know, we are now in the Fall season when the days are shorter and it gets darker earlier. Unfortunately, this is also the time of the year when collisions increase. For this reason, since approval of the Toronto’s Road Safety Plan, we’ve also:
- Accelerated the implementation of the Pedestrian Safety Corridor program. By the end of the year, there will be 46 of these corridors which include a variety of measures to reduce safety risks for pedestrians.
- Rolled out Senior Safety Zones, which include increased walk times at traffic signals, improved pedestrian markings and better signage.
To stay up to date, check out our website toronto.ca/VisionZeroTO.