Item - 2019.TE8.80

The Toronto and East York Community Council recommends that:

1.  City Council reduce the speed limit from 50 km/h to 30 km/h on Fort York Boulevard, between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street.

Promoting safety and accessibility for all road users through planning and investing in our infrastructure is crucial. We need a city wide focus on building safer streets through the accelerated implementation of the Vision Zero road safety plan. In 2018, Toronto was witness to close to two hundred pedestrians killed or seriously injured due traffic related collisions. Fatalities and serious injuries on our roads are preventable.

I have been working with the CityPlace community to identify road safety concerns and implement local improvements. These changes have included the installation of traffic signals at Dan Leckie Way and Fort York Boulevard, and on the west side of Spadina Avenue at Lake Shore Boulevard West. I have also secured approval for complete signalized pedestrian crossings at Spadina Avenue and Bremner Boulevard, and Spadina Avenue and Front Street, as well as a new all-way stops and pedestrian crosswalks at Fort York Boulevard and Queens Wharf Road, and at Dan Leckie Way and Housey Street.

In 2015, Toronto and East York Community Council directed that all roads within the district classified as local streets be reduced to a 30 km/hr speed limit.  At that time, Fort York Boulevard did not qualify for speed limit reduction and as a result the default 50 km/hr speed limit remained.

Today, Fort York Boulevard has a daily vehicular volume of approximately 8000 vehicles/day, has seen a growth in pedestrian traffic and will soon be home to two new schools, a community centre and childcare facility, all expected to open in 2020. Census statistics indicate that about three-quarters of CityPlace residents rely on non-vehicular modes of transportation, including walking, to commute every day. I am recommending that the speed limit on Fort York Boulevard be reduced to 30 km/h because studies have shown that slowing down traffic and reducing speed limits can reduce collisions and reduce pedestrian injury and fatalities.