Road safety isn’t a partisan issue, and not something to rush into either: councillor

In the wake of another fatal collision involving a cyclist on an Ottawa road, city councillors are debating how quickly action should be taken to keep cyclists and pedestrians safer on local streets.

Kitchissippi councillor Jeff Leiper is again touting his Vision Zero motion. The motion's goal is to fast track some initiatives, building infrastructure which will make the city's street's safer for cyclists and pedestrians, in order to get the amount of cycling and pedestrian deaths in Ottawa down to zero.

“[The Wednesday crash which killed a 13-year-old in Orleans] brings in to sharp relief once again the need for Ottawa to get serious about protecting cyclist.” Leiper told Ottawa Today on 1310 NEWS.

The councillor put forward his Vision Zero motion back in June, however council voted to hand the idea over to the city's Transportation Department and have them come up with an in-depth plan on how to make roads safer.

Ottawa's Transportation Committee Chair Stephen Blais said Wednesday that the city is committed to making roads, sidewalks and multi-use pathways as safe as possible, but he noted that this project will take some time.

“The challenge is, if we jump from one event to the next and have knee-jerk reactions, we're never going to solve the bigger problem,” Blais said. “That's what we're trying to work on – a holistic approach for the entirety of the city not just a pocket of the city of specific location or stretch of road.”

After a fatal cyclist crash on Laurier Avenue, near Ottawa City Hall, in May, Mayor Jim Watson and Blais requested a review of the cycling system along Laurier Avenue. Blais added that a road safety action plan was also requested. 

The discussion around road safety errupted on social media, Tuesday evening, following reports of the cyclist struck in Orleans.

Blais tweeted about the road safety action plan in response to a resident claiming nothing was being done to make roads safer for cyclists. Hecalso took a swipe at his colleagues, tweeting: 

Unfortunately, many on the left choose to ignore that and want to rush to do half measures that aren't feasible in many cases instead of listening to the experts who want to present a fulsome plan.

That tweet was later deleted. 

“I was trying to identify a group of councillors who have a different approach than the majority,” he said of his social media post. “I could have used a different term and I should have. It is not an ideological question.”

Blais also spoke to 1310 NEWS about that so-called group of councillors with a “different view.” 

“They want to approach things incident-to-incident, tragedy-to-tragedy, as opposed to hearing from the experts and getting the bigger, broader plan.” 

Which is why we ordered a review of that infrastructure right away. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue but a group on council is more interested in winning the PR than they are getting something achieved.

— Stephen Blais (@StephenBlais) July 24, 2019

 

Councillor @StephenBlais is making a “left v.s right” issue out of road safety. I don't feel this is a partisan issue. He also seems to think that those of you who participated in this #ottbike vigil just wanted to be on t.v.

Is our Transportation Chair listening? pic.twitter.com/iwMAjpL0Kg

— Heather Shearer (@heatshear) July 24, 2019

 

 

A final road safety action plan is expected to be presented to Ottawa's Transportation Committee before the end of the year. There will then need to be a discussion over 2020 budget needs before any actual changes are put in place.