CBC Ottawa explains: Traffic safety

Speeding. Traffic. Roads. Across the city, candidates and incumbents alike say that's what residents want to talk aboutmost often out on the campaign trail.

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So, how serious are these issues? What is the city doing about it? How much money are we throwing at the problem, andis it enough?

Let's take a look.

Speed kills

In a 2015 survey conducted by Ottawa police, distracted driving and speeding topped the list of concerns among Ottawa residents,ranking above drug dealers and street gangs. Residents hate it when drivers takeshort cuts through their neighbourhoodsor speed downresidential streets and past schools, councillorssay.

Policedeal with up to 50 collisions perday, adding up to between 14,000 and 15,000 each year during this term of council. Between 20 and30 peryear proved fatal. There's no obvious upward or downward trend on either measure.

Check out this map of where some of the 14,394collisions happened in 2017. Locationsin red saw more than 40 collisions, orange denotes more than 30 and yellow shows 20 or more. Fatal collisions are marked in grey. Spots that saw at least three collisions involving pedestrians or cyclists are in blue.

Interestingly, the roundabout at St. Joseph and Jeanne d'Arcboulevards saw the most collisions in 2014, 2016and 2017, and came second in 2015 after Hunt Club and Riverside.

Bumps and lights

Certainintersectionsbecome busier over time and require a stop sign or traffic light. But councillorsfrequently expressfrustration at how dire the situation must becomebefore improvements are warranted.

Neighbourhoods can also ask forpricierfixessuch as speed bumps, orget in line for a "traffic area management study."Thosetake a couple of years andinvolve lotsof consultation.

Thecity launches seven or eight studies peryear, but puts just $690,000 of its $729 million capital budget toward the program. That's less than one-tenth of one per cent.

The list of pending studies currently sits at80, so communitygroups need patience.

That's part of the reason why each councillor also gets a bag of temporary, cheaper fixes to choose from.

$40K fund

This term, each councillor has received $40,000 ayear for what's called "traffic calming."It's now the end of term and almost every councillorhas spent the bulk of his or her allowance, except Scott Moffatt and Rick Chiarelli. It will be up to the next council to decide if the funding sourcecontinues.

Councillors choose which streets to targetand select from a menu of methods to slow traffic:

Outgoing Orlanscouncillor Bob Monettesaid he's proud to have used his funding to install flashing speed boards in front of every school in his ward, for instance.

The city says the speed boards and flexible stakes have been slowing driversby an average of 3 km/h to 5 km/h. Arguably, that means these measures do more toslow trafficthan a speed limit sign.

New powers from the province

The blanket speed limit on urban roads in Ontario is 50 km/h. The City of Ottawa feels that's too fast forneighbourhoods, butplastering streets with signs for 40 km/h or even 30 km/hcosts money.

Now thatOntario hasallowedcities to create "gateway" zones, Ottawa can startlowering neighbourhood speed limitswith less signage.

That said, the city has a measly$55,000set aside through 2019 for the gateway signs.At that rate it would take more than 30 years to slow every neighbourhood to 40 km/h. Watch for this issueto come up when a new council debates the budget.

Photo radar could arrive in Ottawa by 2019, but only in school zones and community safety zones. The former Liberal government passed legislation, butmunicipalities across the province still need the new Progressive Conservative government to issue regulations grantingthem the power to hand out tickets.

That could eventually mean a new revenuestream that politicians say they'll spend on traffic safety and enforcement.

Call the police

Councillorswant you to call thepolice whenyou see an aggressive ordistracted driver, but data also helps buildthe case for enforcement.

Did you know those speed boards don't just flash your speed at you while you drive? They also record the data though not a speeder's licence platesocouncillorsknow how many cars went by each day, and at what speeds. That helps them and police pinpoint wherethe speeders are.

Butpolice get their funding from the city, too. Chief Charles Bordeleau has made traffic safety one of his three priorities, alongside guns and gangs and violence against women. And yet, every year at budget time councillorssay residents want more cops out enforcing the rules of the road.

Is it enough?

About $1 million forstakes and signs. Another $2million on pedestrian signals and red light cameras 20 during the most recent term of council. Operating funds for police to enforce the law. Slower speed limits and photo radar on the horizon.

It all adds up.

Other cities includingToronto and New York have"Vision Zero" plans. That means their ultimate goal iszero deaths on their streets, and they commit millions toward that goal.

Ottawa is not at that point.

Maybe part of the answer is closer to home than many people think.

Monetteexplained thatwhen police crack down on speeders in his ward, the perpetratorsare often local.

"A lot of times it's people from the community, neighbours who are doing it. Same ones who are sending emails about the speed," Monette told CBCNews.

Council could vote to spend more money, yes. But drivers could all also learn to lay off the accelerator.

What do you think? Given all the measures the city takes to keep its roads safe, is it doing enough?