On October 4th, The City hosted a Ward Traffic Safety meeting at the Silver Springs Community Association. As part of it, attendees were given an opportunity to review the findings of the past Ward Traffic Safety meeting, discuss specific concerns within our communities, and receive updates from The City and Calgary Police Services. The presentation is available here…
Some of the notable points are:
- In 2016, there were a total of 26 fatal collisions in the City of Calgary. In 2017, that number fell to 10 fatal incidents. With regard to injury collisions, there were 2,430 incidents in 2016 which climbed to 2,796 in 2017. The majority of injury collisions occur to vehicle occupants.
- For a 1% decrease in speed, there is a 2% decrease in collisions, a 3% decrease in injuries, and 4% decrease in fatalities.
- During the last round of ward traffic safety meetings, The City collected over 800 concerns.
- Calgary Police Services has a dedicated team responding to residential traffic concerns. To report a traffic enforcement concern (like speeding in a particular area, repeated failing to stop at a stop sign, concerns around U-turns, etc.), a citizen can report it through a Traffic Service Request (TSR). To file a TSR, go to calgarypolice.ca and scroll about halfway down the page.
Some discussion centered around the Notice of Motion recently passed at City Council to consider lowering the unposted speed limit within the city from 50 km/h to a lower speed. The City’s Traffic Safety department is currently developing a plan to investigate the issue and determine next steps before engaging with the public and, eventually, report back to Council sometime in 2019. One key thing to keep in mind is that the current proposal does not impact non-residential streets like Crowchild Trail, Deerfoot Trail, Nose Hill Drive, or 16th Avenue. The consideration is only for residential streets. There is still debate about what will happen to roads like Tuscany Way or Tuscany Boulevard.
The Traffic and Safety Committee advocates for the community on issues involving traffic as well as more general safety concerns. The committee can be reached at traffic@tuscanyca.org.