It’s a New Year. First Pedestrian struck on LaSalle Blvd.

Well, it won’t be announced with quite the same enthusiasm as the first baby born in Sudbury in 2018, but the police have reported that the first collision with a pedestrian of the year has occurred. It occurred at some point before 3:48pm on January 4, 2018 on LaSalle Blvd, near Somers Street. Judging by…

2017 Pedestrian Safety Recap

2017 was a big year for pedestrians and cyclists in Sudbury. The city installed a bunch of new pedestrian crossovers, initiated a leading pedestrian interval at Kathleen and Notre Dame, and the new active transportation coordinator started getting some serious results as far as infrastructure improvements including new, and improved, cycling infrastructure on Paris Street.…

“32 Short Films About Walking in Sudbury”

This Saturday I’m teaming up with the Coalition of a Liveable Sudbury and the Junction North Documentary Film Festival to premiere “32 Short Films About Walking in Sudbury”. It’s a 20 minutes documentary that highlight some of the challenges faced by pedestrians in Sudbury, and a series of profiles of ordinary Sudburians who get around…

Transportation Master Plan Final Countdown!

It’s been a long, long journey, but it’s finally almost nearly over. The last day to comment on the City of Greater Sudbury’s new Transportation Master Plan is tomorrow! Submit your comments here. In the past week the Coalition For A Liveable Sudbury has highlighted the confusing and troubling fact that despite direction from Council…

Far From Random

After investigating data related to collisions with pedestrians in 2015 staff from the City of Greater Sudbury’s Roads Department concluded, “Due to the random nature of collisions, there is no one measure that could be implemented which would eliminate all pedestrian collisions.” How terrifying would it be if this was true? From 2009 to 2016 the Greater…

Getting the Data

From the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2016 there were 626 collisions involving pedestrians in the City of Greater Sudbury. That’s an average of 3 every two weeks, but unless you work for the Greater Sudbury Police Service or as a 911 operator or at the emergency room at Health Sciences North you…

8 Years of Drivers Hitting Pedestrians in Sudbury

Picture yourself at one of the busiest intersections in the City of Greater Sudbury. The Elm/Notre Dame/Lloyd/Paris intersection sounds complicated, but it’s really just two streets that cross each other and change names on the other side. This is where the five lanes of Elm/Lloyd and the seven lanes of Paris/Notre Dame meet. The distance…

In the Cold November Rain

This morning I finally matched up some of my FOI data with a hypothesis I’ve been rolling over in my mind for a while. I’m reproducing the resulting twitter-essay here, with annotations: It’s November, which means police and other road safety folks are talking about pedestrian safety. November typically sees more drivers hit pedestrians than…

Boulevard Biking – The Motion

Tonight Councillor Deb McIntosh will introduce a motion at City Council to direct staff to report on implementing a recommendation of the unapproved Draft Transportation Master plan. I’ve asked her to reconsider, and I’ve sent the following email to a number of Councillors asking them to oppose or amend the motion: Good afternoon Councillors, On…

Lorne Needs To Go On A Diet

Biking to work one morning I noticed that Lorne Street was reduced to just one lane in each direction, and it had no effect on traffic flow. This confirmed a suspicion I’ve had for a while that we could easily convert two of Lorne’s car lanes into bike lanes and a sidewalk for the east…