Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[danbrotherston]

I don't understand this argument. You point out (I think) that ward 7 residents have higher incomes, on average, than the rest of the city. OK, fine that may be true. And they should drive at 30 km/h in their local neighbourhood, whereas other wards' residents will drive at 40 km/h in their local areas.

So, your issue is that the people from the 30 km/h neighbourhood can drive (speed through!) at 40 km/h in other neighbourhoods? Are you suggesting that they should drive at 30 km/h (because of higher average incomes in ward 7) regardless of whatever area they are in? Or something else?

(In any case, I believe property prices are higher in Beechwood, Laurelwood and Colonial Acres, at least.)

The argument is that the wealthy get the benefits of a speed reduction in their own neighbourhood, without having the adhere to it in other poorer neighbourhoods. Meaning that poorer neighbourhoods suffer the public health costs of higher speeds, in part at the hand of wealthier people who have exempted themselves from the issue.

I also wouldn't think that uptown has the highest incomes/wealth, especially factoring in cost of living. But regardless of what the statistics stay, it's still an equity issue.

This is exactly my thinking...thanks for clarifying.

I did think a bit about whether Ward 7 is the wealthiest, but I didn't look at stats Canada. I figured that Westmount was the most expensive neighbourhood in the city.

FWIW the project in general does actually worsen the equity of the traffic impact in the city given that the homes on major roads don't get any relief.