Toronto’s Road Safety Strategic Plan

In October, I met with the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, Polly Trottenberg, to discuss and share information about transportation and transit initiatives. New York is nationally and internationally recognized as a leader in designing safe streets.

One of our main topics of conversation was Vision Zero, a strategy initiated in Sweden in 1997 that strives to reduce traffic fatalities. The strategy primarily focuses on analyzing the structural causes of accidents and then working to address these problems. A number of major American cities, including New York, Boston and Los Angeles, have adopted variations of Vision Zero.

Here in Toronto, we’re developing a customized Road Safety Strategic Plan that addresses the needs of diverse road users.

You can read my motion here.

We are reviewing our current policies and guidelines on road safety and conducting an enhanced analysis of collision data. A key part of the plan also involves looking at what other cities are doing and how we can adapt international best practices, including Vision Zero, to create our own Toronto-specific road safety initiative.

I’m kicking off the New Year by chairing a roundtable where we’ll work with key stakeholders to brainstorm and develop specific strategies to significantly improve the safety of our shared streets.

Stay tuned for updates!

Jaye with Polly Trottenberg, Commissioner of NYC's Department of Transportation, and Stephen Buckley, General Manager of Transportation Services.