Traffic

Position, Strategy and Messaging Protocols

KET Traffic and Parking Committee
October 2020

Position

 Adopt Vision Zero Principles for Kits Point

Vision Zero—a term that’s increasingly being used and misused around the world—was coined by the Swedish government when it pledged to eliminate death and serious injury from its roads. Launched in 1997, Sweden’s Vision Zero program has attracted widespread attention by cutting its traffic death in half, in the space of just two decades. This remarkable achievement can be attributed to the commitment to failsafe systems of road design, vehicle design and speed control.

The essence of Vision Zero is not a nice sentiment or a target. It is, rather, the action of continuously and pre-emptively removing the very possibility of violence (and that means serious injury as well as death) from our transportation systems. True Vision Zero systems prioritize the safe passage of our most vulnerable populations, whether they are walking or using any number of light mobility devices from bicycles to wheelchairs. 

In every situation a person might fail, the road system should not.

Life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits within society.

Precedents and alignment for doing so:

    • Province of BC
      • The Vision Zero approach is intended to bring together all of B.C.’s road safety partners towards the ultimate goal of zero traffic fatalities and zero serious injuries.
    • City of Vancouver
      • In recent years we have taken steps to improve transportation safety. We have made progress, but more work is needed as fatalities and serious injuries still occur, and even one fatality is too many.

Strategy

  • Commit to a safe mobility system for all users
  • Take leadership of this commitment for Kits Point
  • Communicate directly with key Park Board (PB) and City of Vancouver (COV) traffic mangers.
  • Identify priority actions and initiatives for the COV and PB to focus its efforts and resources to enable a safe mobility system in line with Vision Zero

Priority Actions

  • Base our priorities on evidence-based best practices and be accountable
  • Advocate for safer streets
    • Un-Gap the Greenway
    • Current layout puts pedestrians, cyclists and light mobility devices at risk
      • Modify vehicle flow and direction to reduce safety risks
    • Promote consistent safe travel speeds
      • Make all of Kits Point 30 km/h, rather than confusing 30 – 50 km/h blend
    • Promote parking policies that support safer mobility and encourage parking in underutilized Park Board parking lots
      • Implement pay-parking throughout Kits Point
        • Maintain Resident Permits—the annual residential parking permit for Kits Point is $37.58 with a limit of two per household
        • Demand-based rates, but no lower than rate set in Park Board lots to
          • Discourage vehicle drivers from circling the neighbourhood searching for free parking, often exhibiting unsafe aggressive behaviour
          • Discourage parking by commuters who neither live nor work in Kits Point
          • Eliminate multi-day parking by boat dwellers moored off Kits Point beaches
          • Eliminate the temptation for over-night RV’ing anywhere in Kits Point

Current Challenges within Kits Point

Three public parks. Major civic institutions. Numerous unconnected bike roads and paths. Two huge developments on our doorstep (Sen̓áḵw and Concord Pacific’s redevelopment of Molson lands). What does a Kits Point traffic plan look like to you?

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