Item - 2020.IE18.4

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council amend the Community Safety Zones as set out in Attachment 1 to the report (November 17, 2020) from the General Manager, Transportation Services.

2. City Council prohibit southbound right turns on a red signal at all times on Keele Street at York Boulevard / Canarctic Drive. 

3. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services to also consider, as part of the review and implementation for right-turn on red prohibitions, the implementation of other road safety improvements such as turn signal adjustments, reducing curb radii, and / or protected intersections where feasible and appropriate.

4. City Council refer the following recommendation to the North York Community Council for consideration:

That City Council reduce the speed limit from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 kilometres per hour on the following road segments:

a. Lawrence Avenue East, between Don Mills Road and Woodcliff Place; and

b. York Mills Road, between Bayview Avenue and Don Mills Road.

The purpose of this report is to respond to a number of requests made by City Council of the General Manager, Transportation Services concerning the following road safety items:

- evaluation of city-wide major arterial speed limit reductions;

- review of student project idea: Pedestrian Avoidance Warning System (P.A.W.S.);

- MOVE update and sharing traffic volume and collision data;

- Right Turn on Red Prohibition Strategy, including research on the impact of driver frustration on road safety;

- improving road safety of school age children through Automated Speed Enforcement; and

- 2020 collision trends to date.

In addition to responding to Council's requests, Transportation Services is also recommending the following items as part of the continued implementation of the Vision Zero 2.0 Road Safety Plan:

- additional major arterial speed limit changes to support the Speed Management Strategy;

- prohibition of right-turn-on-red movements at one location, with an additional 15 locations tentatively identified for future implementation; and

- Designation of additional Community Safety Zones at private high schools to support school safety and Automated Speed Enforcement.
 

- Update on Speed Management Strategy Evaluation: Transportation Services staff have assessed the impacts of the city-wide major arterial speed limit reductions that were implemented as part of the Vision Zero 2.0 - Road Safety Plan update approved in July 2019. This report outlines that, while the available data is limited, there is evidence that the speed limit reductions have resulted in some reductions in operating speeds of vehicles compared to similar control segments. The results support a continued pursuance of the Speed Management Strategy. Additional major arterial speed limit changes to support the Speed Management Strategy are recommended in this report.

- Review of Student Project Idea: Pedestrian Avoidance Warning System (P.A.W.S.): After review of the idea and looking at the potential benefits and drawbacks, this report does not recommend the development of a pilot, but highlights other ongoing initiatives aimed at addressing vulnerable road user safety at signalized intersections.

- MOVE Update and Sharing Traffic Volume and Collision Data: In December 2019, City Council approved a non-competitive contract with Code for Canada to supply a development team that will work over an 18 month period to transition a prototype software, MOVE to an active application used by over 100 city staff in their daily work, while retiring the legacy systems CRASH and FLOW. When fully deployed, MOVE will significantly reduce the data collection bottleneck, reducing service delivery times across a number of key programs including neighbourhood traffic investigations, school crossing guard investigations, corridor safety audits, reviews of road classification, signal coordination studies and road designs. Once developed, the MOVE platform will allow staff to manage volume data from all multi-modal data collection devices in the city and aggregate it to provide a summarized view of current trends.

- Right Turn on Red Prohibition Strategy, including Impact of Driver Frustration on Road Safety: Transportation Services staff have considered a blanket city-wide ban on right-turns-on-red (RTOR) and found that there would be a potential safety benefit at some locations, but that at other locations, introducing RTOR prohibitions may result in less safe conditions for people walking and cycling. To that end, staff have developed a strategy to identify intersection locations that would benefit from proactive RTOR prohibitions. Transportation Services staff have performed a literature review and have found no evidence that driver frustration, from practices such as RTOR prohibitions or speed limit reductions, result in increased safety concerns. This report recommends the prohibition of RTOR at 15 locations.

- Improving Road Safety of School Age Children through Automated Speed Enforcement: This report outlines the process for determining the allocation of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras at schools within designated Community Safety Zones. In addition, the report identifies ongoing capacity challenges with having a greater share of ASE cameras at schools that are on major arterial roads.

- 2020 Collisions Trends to Date: Transportation Services staff have been closely monitoring the traffic patterns and collision data in 2020 to determine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall collision numbers have shown a significant reduction in serious injury and fatality collisions to date. It is suspected that the majority of this decrease is due to the reduced traffic volumes that resulted from the pandemic.