Safe Streets and Neighbourhood Renewal

All of us, especially our youngest, deserve to be safe from dangerous driving in our neighbourhoods.

I want to share a little bit about 1) steps we can take as a community for safe streets and 2) more information about upcoming neighbourhood renewal process.

 

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is the long-term goal of zero traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. The principles are:

  • No loss of life is acceptable
  • Traffic fatalities and serious injuries are preventable
  • We all make mistakes
  • We are all physically vulnerable when involved in motor vehicle collisions
  • Eliminating fatalities and serious injuries requires Edmontonians and the City to prioritize safety

Vision Zero is the long-term goal of zero traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. Vision Zero has been adopted by leaders in traffic safety. Learn More: https://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/traffic_safety/vision-zero

 

Street Labs: a great way for community and the city to bring traffic safety improvements to our neighbourhoods using adaptable traffic calming measures. 

Each Street Lab project is tailored to the unique needs of the community to creatively address neighbourhood traffic safety concerns such as speeding, short-cutting and other unsafe driving behaviours. Because they are adaptable, they can be adjusted, moved, corrected, and tested until the optimal outcomes are achieved. You can see the reports and the feedback generated here: https://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/traffic_safety/vision-zero-street-labs

How a Neighbourhood is Considered for a Street Lab:

The best avenue for the public to inform us about their traffic safety concerns continues to be 311, which allows us to easily track, aggregate and use that valuable input to make streets safer and more livable. No application is required, but 311 calls are encouraged-- and please be specifc about dates, times, locations to best inform the traffic engineers!

 

How Areas are Reviewed and How data is analyzed:

Neighbourhoods are reviewed and selected based on public traffic safety concerns, collision data, speed and traffic volume data and other technical considerations. Other factors, such as previously submitted applications and equity indicators are also considered when selecting the neighbourhoods.

Factors influencing priorities include:

  • Crash risk 
  • Location of concern 
  • Considerations to ensure equitable distribution of Safe Mobility resources.
  • Ongoing, recent or planned construction projects that may already include safety measures (i.e. Neighbourhood Renewal).
  • Large capital projects, such as LRT expansion, that disrupt typical traffic patterns (we would wait until traffic patterns stabilize post-construction). 

We are currently reviewing our next round of neighbourhoods that will be engaged this year for the 2026 Street Lab installation year. More information will be available regarding program decisions in the coming weeks.

 

Safe Crossings

 

Safe crossings are essential to community connectivity, safety, and livability. Since 2016, the City has upgraded almost 600 crosswalks through the Safe Crossings Program and an additional 200 crosswalks are planned to be upgraded by the end of 2026. You can find information about crosswalk upgrades on this public-facing dashboard

The tool used for each crossing upgrade is carefully selected. These tools provide protection for people walking, cycling, or rolling, encourage slower speeds, and provide drivers with more reaction time and visibility so all road users can feel safe. The number of vehicles, number of lanes of traffic people need to cross, presence of a median, speed limit, and proximity to existing safe crossing tools influence what kind of added measure will be selected. The City often goes above and beyond national safety guidelines in how crossings are upgraded to support our progress toward our goal of Vision Zero.

This evaluation provides a means of determining the appropriate level of protection required at a given location, and ensures that available resources are allocated to critical locations in an equitable manner. We are also committed to conducting regular assessments of crosswalks to ensure they meet the highest safety standards. For example, as part of the Safe Crossings Program, a rapid flashing beacon was installed at 40 Avenue & 112A Street in Greenfield Community in 2024.



Speed Humps and Tables

Each year, as part of Vision Zero, the Safe Mobility Engineering team selects locations for projects to use proven traffic calming measures to upgrade existing streets across the city. 

The speed humps and speed tables program aims to encourage safer speeds and driving behaviours along priority corridors where traffic safety improvements are needed to increase community safety and livability for all. 50 - 60 projects will be installed from 2023-2026, and 22 of these projects are scheduled to be implemented in 2025. Visit the Safe Streets Map to see locations that have new speed humps and speed tables.  

Location Factors

Speed hump and speed table locations have been identified based on a number of different factors: 

  • Public inquiries
  • The roadway was identified as a high-speed, high traffic volume, high vulnerable road user volume, such as playground zone, or high crash area
  • Other areas were identified originally through the Vision Zero Street Labs program
  • Some were identified through previous assessments for other safety measures

For Greenfield, in total five speed tables are planned for installation this year to improve the safety near the school area. Two of them will be located along 114 Street between 37 Avenue and 40 Avenue. The other three will be located along 37 Avenue between 114 Street and 111B Street. Currently, the project is in the design phase.

Portable Speed Trailers

Portable driver feedback signs (speed trailers) alert drivers to their current speed and encourage them to slow down if they are travelling above the speed limit. These signs can reduce vehicle speeds and collisions, and let drivers know that safe streets are important to your community. Portable speed trailers are deployed on a two-week rotation before they are moved to a new location. Please note these temporary signs are in high demand, and we are working as quickly as possible to honour all of the requests. Given that these speed trailers are high in demand, we consider several factors to help prioritize all the requests, these include the:

  • Number of requests we get for the same location;
  • Number of days the requests stay in the queue;
  • Number of speed related crashes at the requested area; and,
  • Presence of schools or senior centres at the requested area.

Portable driver feedback signs can be requested to be temporarily installed in a community using the Safe Speeds Toolkit request form.

 

Contact 311 for Concerns:

To report traffic safety concerns or request a review for your neighbourhood, please contact 311. Reports are reviewed and actioned by the Safe Mobility team, and if appropriate, included in considerations for future safety improvements or programs.

 

Neighbourhood Renewal 

What is Neighbourhood Renewal?

The Neighbourhood Renewal program renews and rebuilds roads, sidewalks and street lights in mature neighbourhoods, while looking for opportunities to connect missing active transportation links and improve public spaces. The new infrastructure is designed to be in place for 30 to 50 years. 

  • Arterial roads and alleys are not included in Neighbourhood Renewal
  • Through the program, opportunities to improve active transportation infrastructure (i.e. missing sidewalk, bike lanes and shared pathway additions), road safety (i.e. traffic calming and school area crossings) and open spaces are also explored
  • The Neighbourhood Renewal Program is fully funded through a dedicated tax levy

Neighbourhood Renewal Public Engagement 

  • The project will take a holistic approach to design, working with neighbourhood residents, businesses and other stakeholders to consider their input. 
  • A series of public engagement activities will be scheduled to provide residents the opportunity to view the project at different stages and to provide feedback. The project team will follow the Neighbourhood Renewal Road Map (shown below) to help you and your neighbours understand the stages of the renewal process and how you can participate. At each stage the project team will tell you what the purpose is and how your input will inform the decisions being made.  
  • The Project Team will make every effort to ensure each community member (resident, business owner, hard to house individual, frequent visitor, special interest groups etc.) will be aware of the opportunities to provide input. The Project Team will include a variety of tactics to reach community members as possible.

 

Neighbourhood renewal timing

The condition of the existing infrastructure is one of the criteria that is used to determine renewal timing. Each year, one quarter of the neighbourhoods in Edmonton are assessed by a team of inspectors. In other words, a given neighbourhood is reviewed every 4 years. These people will assess the current conditions of the roads and sidewalks of a neighbourhood and apply an overall condition rating to it. When that rating is identified as poor, that neighbourhood is eligible for the renewal program. Once eligible, other factors such as available budget, and coordination with underground utilities and other City projects help finalize the scheduling of the neighbourhood reconstruction. The neighbourhood and alley renewal projects may be coordinated pending outcomes of assessments.

Latest posts

Since 2015, building inwards contributes +$263 million in property taxes in mature neighbourhoods alone

A new memo (February 2025) from the assessment and taxation department at the City of Edmonton highlights just how enormous the financial impact of building inwards and upwards is to building a financially resilient and sustainable city.

City Hall News: Feb 4th, 2025

Inside….

  1. Province shorts Edmontonians $96 million in unpaid property taxes since 2019.
  2. Low Income Transit Programs in jeopardy in provincial budget
  3. Better Public Transit Book Club (Human Transit by Walker)
  4. EVENT: March 2nd: Annual Service Plan Launch Event
  5. EVENT: March 6th: Affordability Town Hall with Canadians for Tax Fairness
  6. WEBINAR: Infill and the Residential Zone
  7. Re-Cap: Greenfield Safe Streets Event

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