Watch your step! Windsor's most dangerous pedestrian, cyclist pathways
City's collision death rate is lower but injury rate higher, compared to the rest of Ontario
The most dangerous walkways for pedestrians in Windsor include a stretch on Wyandotte Street East and on Tecumseh Road East — but the city says it's en route to making them better.
The first Vision Zero progress report heads to the city's Environment, Transportation and Public Safety standing committee Wednesday. Outlined in the report are trends and patterns from the most recent traffic collisions in Windsor, specifically those leading to deaths and major injuries.
This update comes amid an investigation into the latest fatal hit and run, when a man in his early 80s was struck and killed in downtown Windsor on Oct. 15. Police are still searching for a suspect, but have identified two possible vehicles.
This latest report headed to the city is a step toward creating an action plan for the Vision Zero policy, which was implemented in February 2020.
"We've identified strategic priorities based on the collision data for the collisions that we actually see in Windsor, so not just theoretical ideas about what might be going on but what has been going on historically," said the report's author Jeff Hagan, who is also the city's transportation planning senior engineer.
Report highlights bad stretches, impairment
The nine page report identifies a handful of key themes from the most recent data collected between 2015 and 2019.
A main takeaway from the report is that although pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists are only involved in five per cent of all collisions, they make up nearly half of all deaths or major injuries.
According to the data collected, the worst stretches of road — those with highest risk of injury — for pedestrians include Wyandotte Street East, between Ouellette Avenue and Chilver Road, and Tecumseh Street East, between Jefferson Boulevard and Forest Glade Drive.
For cyclists, the most dangerous bit of road is Wyandotte Street from Pelissier Street to Parent Avenue.
Although alcohol played a role in about 12 per cent of all collisions between 2015 and 2019, drug impairment became an increasingly common factor.
The report also found that intersections with traffic lights had the greatest number of deaths and major injury collisions for all road users, except for motorcyclists.
"A lot of our signalized intersections are the intersections of our busiest roads and carrying the highest speeds," Hagan said.
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The report says that in order to save one pedestrian's life, at least 11 collisions need to be prevented. To save one cyclist's life, about 24 collisions need to be prevented.
"Rather than looking at it pessimistically, I see that as an area for hope. It does mean that money and effort spent on road safety measures especially for vulnerable road users can very quickly pay off," he said.
Compared to the rest of the province, Windsor's collision death rate is lower, but it's injury rate is higher, according to the city's 2019 Safety Report.
What's happening right now?
Initiatives such as several ongoing traffic calming studies, extended pedestrian crosswalk times, signs and pavement markings and red light cameras — which were implemented this fall — are in the works.
The city was having a discussion on reducing the speed limit on all non-arterial roads from 50 km/h to 40 km/h. In April council deferred this deision to administration so that it would be included in the planning for the city's Vision Zero Policy.
What's next?
The second progress report on Vision Zero is expected for early next year. By March 2022, Hagan said they hope to have an action plan that will inform city council on specific strategies or policies to implement.
As for the most dangerous roadways in Windsor, Hagan said they are looking into performing a road safety audit. This would help them better understand what sorts of collisions are happening and why, along with ways to prevent them.
For now, Hagan said they are also working through some data gaps that would better inform certain initiatives.
For example, Hagan said some regions in the province are able to know repeat traffic offenders. He said this would be helpful to know as they might be able to work with the drivers to ensure they are being more cautious.
Another challenge is information sharing between police, EMS, hospitals and the city. Hagan said when collisions take place each organization might receive different details on what took place.
He said they hope to be able to share those reports with each other so everyone is getting the full picture.