Elections

Do you support the "Vision Zero" goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Hamilton? If so, what specific actions would you take to implement this policy? If not, why not?

Responses to the question: "Do you support the "Vision Zero" goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Hamilton? If so, what specific actions would you take to implement this policy? If not, why not?"

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5 Candidate Responses (top)

Ward 02
CandidateBrief ResponseFull Response
Daljeet, Suresh Venodh Yes Yes to Vision Zero. It's a proven concept. I will push to reduce speeds, look at rerouting trucks from residential areas and make safer cycling and pedestrian routes. Everyone has to be accountable for road safety, drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. I think we need better education, more visible signage and an updated compressive traffic plan across the city which includes getting more people out of vehicles and onto transit.
Farr, Jason Yes I support Vision Zero. As Councillor, I believe the actions I continue to take with respect to a complete street focus in our downtown is evidence of this. These actions are important steps toward eliminating traffic fatalities. Let me list a few:

- Approx. 10 kms of new bike lanes

- Charlton / Herkimer Parking Protected Bike Lanes (thanks to the resident-led sub-committee of 2 Neighbourhood Associations).

- Bay Street Bike Lane (thanks to council and the Province for the support)

- North End Traffic Management Plan (NETMP) (even today there are some residents resisting, but I maintain support and stay positive when interacting with those who still question the needs of 30k speeds, knock-downs, speed-humps and more).

- Two-way conversions of Duke and Bold (many RTH regulars attended my Town Hall on this and heard from residents resistant to the idea. They were citing faster and more traffic, snow removal and parking issues as reasons for resistance, but they were also very concerned about the current safety these one-way residential cut-trough speed-ways were causing – results are in, there half the cut-throughs and lower speeds since the conversion along with a net-gain in parking).

- John Street North Contra-Flow Bike Lane (John was to be converted two way and residents immediately adjacent were sceptical – with a main argument that thousands of new residents to Pier 8 would have a direct line in and out on this residential street. They called a meeting and we quickly realized that all of us were on the same page – we wanted to slow traffic down especially in the area of the two schools and North End Community Health Centre. We just had different approaches. The John Street tweak to the NETMP we see today was led by these residents).

- Queen Street South 2 Way conversion – No other street in the City of Hamilton has received calming measures as much as this stretch. What started with a community audit with Brian McHattie and me and many devoted residents (we also walked Cannon pre-bike lane), led to some quick wins, then some safer pedestrian crossings and intersection works. This term, I successfully moved the 40 km limit and was supported at Council. We also have seen many other calming and pedestrian safety measures (notably at Herkimer and Queen). But with all the work we have done, there are some car commuters not getting the message. Finally, with this year’s two-way conversion design and next years installation, we are hoping that Queen south becomes the model safe street in the City.

I have also moved successfully a motion that Hamilton sign the Road Safety Pledge campaign and I regularly work closely and collaboratively with City of Hamilton staff from Traffic and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) on a wide range of neighbourhood safety installations. We encourage neighbourhood traffic safety audits and have traffic and TDM staff attend community meetings.

Speeding and aggressive driving are the leading cause of collisions and fatalities and with our city hovering around 3500 collisions annually and very tragically witnessing 16 fatalities in 2017, it is clear that road safety needs to remain the focus and we must understand and appreciate and support the Vision Zero mandate.
Kroetsch, Cameron Yes Yes, I am a strong supporter of “Vision Zero”. In concert with other cities around the world, I would propose that we reduce speed limits across the city, but especially downtown. I would also propose that we implement a mandatory complete streets program for all new development. Specifically for Ward 2, I would propose plans for the conversion of Main Street to a two-way complete street and to phase out one-way streets downtown. Beyond this, I would focus more on physical street design. Speed humps and stop signs are not enough. We need to focus on designing streets that discourage and prevent unsafe driving so that all road users can get around the city safely. We cannot continue to rely on a system that accepts that an error in the operation of a motor vehicle can so easily mean the death of another road user.
Smith, Nicole Yes We urgently need to work toward this. Besides the system of continuous protected bike lanes, we need to reduce the speed on our street by implementing two way streets as much as possible, especially Main, and using the most effective speed reduction options available to us.
Tennant, Mark Yes I support the Vision Zero goal that even one traffic fatality is unacceptable. People will make mistakes but the road system will not. With improved awareness of my part, I would advocate to implement the 5 elements of Vision Zero.

Response Summary (top)

Brief ResponseCount% of Total
Yes5100.0%
No00.0%
Maybe00.0%

3 Candidates Have Not Responded (top)

Ward 02
Chiarelli, Diane
Unsworth, James
Vail, John