INNOVATION November-December 2012

f ea t u r e s

Vancouver’s Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan

Alina Cheng PEng

to improve pedestrian safety. The study incorporated datasets regarding road infrastructure, weather and lighting conditions, and included a comparison to other cities and a review of education,

Every trip begins and ends with walking, even when the primary mode is bicycle, transit or vehicle. It is the most fundamental form of trans- portation. With the City of Vancouver’s vision of being the greenest city in the world by 2020 and a goal of having the majority of trips in 2020 be by walking, cycling and transit, making walking feel safe for all ages and abilities is a key strategy for encouraging people to walk more. In 2012, the City of Vancouver completed its first ever city-wide Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan. Using collision data from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) and the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), the study examined where, when and how collisions between vehicles and pedestrians were occurring, who they involved, and actions that could be undertaken

enforcement and engineering measures. Who, When, Where and How

Overall, a total of 3,066 collisions between vehicles and pedestrians were reported from 2005 to 2010. This is an average of 511 collisions per year involving pedestrians, accounting for 1.8% of all traffic collisions reported each year in Vancouver. As shown in Figure 1, both the number of total traffic collisions and those involving pedestrians have been generally declining since 1996.

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Nov e m b e r /D e c e m b e r 2 012

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