I was fortunate enough to meet a colleague recently who works on implementing Vision Zero for a major Canadian city. During our conversation, I mentioned the project TCAT has been leading with the City of Toronto’s Vision Zero team. This spring, we’ve been engaging older adults in ten communities across Toronto about road safety improvements the City is considering implementing. The potential improvements were suggested during community events that TCAT conducted earlier during this project to understand safety issues faced by older adults as they move around their neighbourhood. Our spring engagement sessions share the potential improvements with older adults from the same communities and solicit their input on whether the City is on the right track, if the proposed improvement addressed the major safety concerns, or whether further design revisions are needed. This second round of feedback will inform the final designs for Toronto’s Vision Zero team and be the last step before implementation.
As I described the project, my companion expressed concern about the type of feedback we were hearing from older adults at our engagement events. TCAT’s approach to engagement throughout the project has been to discuss Vision Zero as a crucial program that reduces instances of road violence leading to death or serious injuries. However, we’ve also framed Vision Zero within the larger context of creating safer streets that support older adults in living healthy, active lives by increasing access to independent mobility. As a result, the feedback we heard from older adults included input on Vision Zero-type improvements as well as on a variety of issues that affect older adults’ experiences of the street, such as access to accessible transit services, winter maintenance, and a lack of comfortable seating in public spaces – issues that are crucial aspects of creating age-friendly Complete Streets.
My companion felt that this style of engagement is actually counterproductive for their work of implementing Vision Zero infrastructure as quickly as possible. They feel engagement for Vision Zero should focus on major streets, intersections, vehicular turning movements, and reducing the speed of vehicles –the key factors that result in fatalities or serious injuries. Discussions on snow removal or public seating are distractions from the real issues that need interventions from a Vision Zero perspective.
This led to a passionate conversation about the role of community engagement in Vision Zero. TCAT’s perspective is that all the information we heard from the community was useful data for the City of Toronto in achieving their transportation mode-share goals, even if it does not directly connect with Vision Zero. On the other hand, my companion described the difficulties they face getting elected officials, community members, and other colleagues within the municipal civil service to focus on the needed actions that meaningfully address fatalities and serious injuries on city streets. From their perspective, discussions about pedestrian lighting, signage, or street furniture are distractions that dilute or derail efforts to implement Vision Zero initiatives.
It was a really enjoyable discussion. We both see where the other is coming from. From TCAT’s perspective, meaningful community engagement means being open to receiving many types of feedback from the community and giving residents a say in what issues are important to discuss. From my companion’s perspective, Vision Zero is difficult enough to implement without muddying the conversational waters with other mobility issues that, while important, don’t have much impact on reducing road violence.
I’m still thinking through the implications of the conversation and how it should inform our future approaches to engaging communities around Vision Zero. I am curious if this is something other practitioners have been grappling with. I’d love to hear thoughts on who is right and how we should balance keeping engagement focused but adaptive. Please reach out with any thoughts at dsimor@cleanairpatnership.org.
By David Simor, TCAT Director