New Halifax road safety plan includes better data, targeted projects

Reactions from Halifax councillorstothe city's new road safety strategy are largely positive as the municipality moves toward an ambitious goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries on local roadsby 2038.

Staff presented the new plan to the city's transportation standing committee Thursday. It replaces the former five-year strategy that recently finished, but this one has no end date.

It's a framework of four key priorities: intersections;vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists;schools;and better data.

Lucas Pitts, director of traffic management, said the municipality is getting better software to track and share more details about collisions. In 2025, the plan is to use that data to map the areas with the highest injuriesto prioritize road safety projects.

The plan will make "us a little bit more accountable, a little bit more open about what is happening on our roads," Pitts said during the meeting.

He said progress reports will show absolute numbers as well as the rate of collisions per 100,000 residentsto better compare with other cities and be more accurate given Halifax'srapid growth.

Plans to tackle problem intersections coming next month

Councillors Shawn Cleary and Waye Mason said they were happy to see better data tracking and other points in the plan.

Work this year includes installing more high-visibility crosswalks and traffic-calming measures.Areport is coming in May on how to improve the top 10 intersectionswith the most collisions and what that will cost.

"That's real, hard, solid. Something to sink your teeth into, as opposed to just high-level, arbitrary things," said Coun. Trish Purdy.

But Peter Zimmer, a board member with the Halifax Cycling Coalition and member of Halifax's road safety stakeholder committee, said the plan is too car-centric.

He would have liked to see data on how long pedestrians take to get across crosswalks, how bikes interact with cars, and keeping children safe when they're playing near roads.

WATCH | New Halifax road safety plan includes better data, targeted projects:

How Halifax plans to make its roads safer

5 months ago

Duration 2:15

Halifax plans to tackle the top 10 worst intersections under its new road safety strategy. The goal is to reach zero fatalities or serious injuries by 2038. Haley Ryan reports.

Zimmer said everyone would be safer if speed limitswere lowered, and photo radar led to more tickets. It would also save money in police time, he said.

The Halifax municipality has asked the province to change legislation to allow photo radar, but that hasn't happened yet.

"Get off your butts and do it, and don't do it as a pilot project do it as a provincewide option," Zimmer said after the meeting.

Halifax staff said 80 per cent oflocal collisions are between vehicles, so addressing those is key to hitting zero by 2038.

The committee delayed a decision on the plan until its next meetingto give stakeholders and the active transportation committee a chance to weigh in on the strategy.

10 problematic intersections

Whenmunicipal officials reviewed traffic collision data from 2022, about half of the collisions,376,were related to intersections. The staffreport identified the top 10 with the most incidents. They included:

• Burnside Drive at Wright Avenue.
• Bayers Road at Connaught Avenue.
• Albro Lake Roadat Victoria Road.
• Bayers Road at Joseph Howe Drive and Dutch Village Road.
• Mumford Road at Halifax Shopping Centre.
• Burnside Drive at Commodore Drive and Ronald Smith Avenue.
• Bedford Highway at Hammonds Plains Road.
• Portland Street at Spring Avenue and Portland Estates Boulevard.
• Dutch Village Road Northat Joseph Howe Drive.
• Chebucto Road at Connaught Avenue.