Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[dtkvictim]

The speed limit in most Kitchener school zones is currently 30 km/h. City staff had recommended increasing the limit to 40 km/h on what they call “major community collector and city arterial streets.”

Staff said there are a total of 34 school zones on these types of streets, which are typically designed for higher speeds and larger traffic volumes.

The real root of the problem, IMO.

[danbrotherston]

The speed limit in most Kitchener school zones is currently 30 km/h. City staff had recommended increasing the limit to 40 km/h on what they call “major community collector and city arterial streets.”

Staff said there are a total of 34 school zones on these types of streets, which are typically designed for higher speeds and larger traffic volumes.

The real root of the problem, IMO.

That is certainly a contributing problem. But while I couldn’t find any schools along arterials in Amersfoort I did find a few along collector roads which also have a 15km/h limit. 

While I prefer a car free city, if we aren’t to have that we do still need to at least stop obsessing about speed. (Of course the ion rarely exceeds 40km/h along the arterial rd long and nobody cares a damn about that).

[bravado]

7 pedestrians hit in 2 days and local news has nothing to say but repeating police reports and councillors are totally silent. How’s vision zero going?

I bet that 5yo hit in Waterloo was probably on their phone and not paying attention when walking too.

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/waterloo-...ridge.aspx

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/waterloo-...erloo.aspx

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/waterloo-...rians.aspx

[danbrotherston]

7 pedestrians hit in 2 days and local news has nothing to say but repeating police reports and councillors are totally silent. How’s vision zero going?

I bet that 5yo hit in Waterloo was probably on their phone and not paying attention when walking too.

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/waterloo-...ridge.aspx

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/waterloo-...erloo.aspx

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/waterloo-...rians.aspx

Mostly you're right, and it's just exhausting, hearing the same "equal responsibility/everyone has a part to play" bullshit repeated over and over and over again.

But I will say, they did bother to interview David Shellnut, who does good advocacy...but the article doesn't seem to really refocus the issue, but I wouldn't say the media is doing nothing.

As for Vision Zero, I don't think it's really been a policy long enough to make real change, but I never really saw the whole VZ policy that was voted on...did they actually approve something more substantial than the "tell pedestrians to be careful, harder" that most cities seem to use for the entire VZ strategy?

[danbrotherston]

Oh look at that. Speed limits DO work!

https://kitchener.citynews.ca/2024/02/27...ial-areas/

[nms]

Police set up a radar device in a Kitchener neighbourhood to monitor traffic. Now, it's missing (CBC)

[danbrotherston]

Police set up a radar device in a Kitchener neighbourhood to monitor traffic. Now, it's missing (CBC)

My money is on someone who has used the words "law and order" un-ironically at least fourteen times in the previous election.

[bravado]

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/police-in...hener.aspx

Another death on a regional road.

[westwardloo]

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/police-in...hener.aspx

Another death on a regional road.

This is always sad to hear. Unfortunately nothing will change until there is a westbound flyover built between 8/401.  This regional road is essentially a major HWY and is designed as such. If the LRT is ever built and a flyover, King st could be designed to handle less traffic at slower speeds.

[danbrotherston]

https://www.wrps.on.ca/en/news/police-in...hener.aspx

Another death on a regional road.

This is always sad to hear. Unfortunately nothing will change until there is a westbound flyover built between 8/401.  This regional road is essentially a major HWY and is designed as such. If the LRT is ever built and a flyover, King st could be designed to handle less traffic at slower speeds.

Could be but won't...not under the current cultural regime.

[danbrotherston]

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/elderly-man...-1.6811067

You might think that this article is about one person being hit by a car on Park St., but in fact, half the article is detailing the three other people that have been hit by cars in the past four days including the previously mentioned fatal crash.

Why am I the radical one for saying this isn't okay?

[ac3r]

Absolutely nobody thinks this is okay or that it's "radical" to state as such.

[ijmorlan]

Absolutely nobody thinks this is okay or that it's "radical" to state as such.

Lots of people think it’s fine to keep building roads the way we do, and to de-fund the downtown cycling (former) grid.

[ac3r]

That isn't the same as saying it's okay for people to get killed in automobile accidents, though. Nobody likes such news and it isn't a radical position to say so.

But yeah, a big problem is funding. A 6 inch concrete curb isn't going to stop a vehicle from smashing into a pedestrian, cyclist or train. That seems to be how we do things here, though. Waterloo Region is like a Wish.com tier city LARPing as a big one, but doesn't want to act like one.

[ijmorlan]

That isn't the same as saying it's okay for people to get killed in automobile accidents, though. Nobody likes such news and it isn't a radical position to say so.

It’s not the same, mostly because explicitly saying that pedestrian deaths are OK is obviously abhorrent. Just continuing with the status quo is only abhorrent to those who understand that things could be otherwise.

But yeah, a big problem is funding. A 6 inch concrete curb isn't going to stop a vehicle from smashing into a pedestrian, cyclist or train. That seems to be how we do things here, though. Waterloo Region is like a Wish.com tier city LARPing as a big one, but doesn't want to act like one.

I don’t think funding is a problem at all. By paring back unnecessary road construction (mostly trimming motor vehicle lanes carefully where they don’t help), I claim we could free up enough resources to build more cycling infrastructure than has ever been seriously proposed. Or, concrete example (literally!): consider the Fairway Road bridge; it wouldn’t have cost more to build its bicycle lanes properly, separated from motor vehicles by a barrier (instead of separated from the sidewalk by a barrier).