New Westminster is striking a Vision Zero task force to tackle injuries and fatalities on local roads.
At a March 17 workshop, council unanimously endorsed the terms of reference for the task force. A staff report included the terms of reference and a letter that will be sent out to partner agencies and community organizations inviting them to participate.
Mike Anderson, manager of transportation, said the staff recommendation was the result of a request from council in December 2024, when council supported the formation of a Vision Zero task force. He said Vision Zero is a systemic approach to road safety that has an “ambitious goal” of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries in the transportation system.
“To put things in context, almost 50,000 people die on North American roads every year,” he said. “That’s equivalent to a large airplane crashing about every two days. And yet we rarely hear much about road safety in the public discourse as much as we hear about plane crashes.”
Anderson said road crashes have a “significant” toll on society, including long-term injuries, ongoing health care, lost productivity for victims, trauma among family, victims and first responders, as well as insurance, infrastructure, and staffing costs to deal with road safety.
According to Anderson, New Westminster typically experiences one or two traffic-related fatalities a year.
“The burden of road crashes is high and is disproportionately felt by vulnerable road users and people not in motor vehicles,” he said. “So, addressing safety on our roads benefits everyone, especially our most vulnerable citizens.”
Anderson stressed that Vision Zero is about far more than engineering.
“It’s about the system in which people travel, including the way our cities are planned, the speeds that we enable, the vehicles we operate, and the users who operate them,” he said. “With this broad and multifaceted perspective, Vision Zero programs are typically led from a corporate level. Vision Zero recognizes that people make mistakes, that people are vulnerable, and that responsibility is shared across road agencies, vehicle manufacturers, people using the transportation system, health care and much more. It is a more proactive systemic approach that requires broad cooperation across agencies, sharing of data and multifaceted solutions.”
Anderson said research has determined that a successful Vision Zero program includes leadership across agencies, the use of data and data sharing, the creation of a highly focused and measurable action plan that can be championed by a task force, and an ongoing process of monitoring and evaluation to understand effectiveness and to adapt to evolving conditions.
Who will be on the Vision Zero task force?
According to Anderson, the first step being proposed is to convene a task force comprised of senior representatives from agencies that are directly involved in road safety in New Westminster and that possess data that will be useful in developing an action plan. This would include membership from Fraser Health, ICBC, the New Westminster Police Department, New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services, TransLink and the Ministry of Transportation and Transit and/or the Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General.
“We have made initial contact with individuals at these organizations and the response has actually been quite positive,” he said. “Once the task force has been established and the action plan is in development, the task force can then engage with community organizations and the general public.”
Mayor Patrick Johnstone, who proposed that the city create a Vision Zero task force, asked that staff from Road Safety BC and the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit also be included in the initial task force. He said that follows up on a discussion he had recently with Road Safety BC when meeting with Public Safety Minister Garry Begg in Victoria.
“They are very interested in taking part in this,” he said. “They recognize that the approach we are taking is different than any approach taken by any other city in British Columbia.”
Coun. Nadine Nakagawa said she’s keen to see this move forward and to talk more to the community about this. She said community members are asking for safer streets.
“I don’t know if it’s just a sense that I have but it seems like there is a real uptick in the number of crashes in different locations in our community, and very dangerous and deadly accidents,” she said. “So, I think this is a really good time for this important piece of work.”
While Vision Zero comes across as being a very technical project, Nakagawa said she hopes there’s an opportunity to talk to the community about the initiative in a way that makes sense for them.
“I think there is a lot of people in the community who are very interested in seeing this move forward and are pressing for us to do something exactly like this,” she said. “I just want to give kudos to everyone involved and kudos to the mayor — I know this really is his passion project.”
The motion approved by council in December called on the city to strike a Vision Zero task force, including, but not limited to representation from engineering staff, the fire and police departments, ICBC, Fraser Health, TransLink, the New Westminster school district, HUB Cycling, the Walkers Caucus, members of the city’s accessibility community, and youth.
The staff report said the immediate priority is to invite partner agencies having quantitative data to serve on the task force. Using that data, the task force would draft a Vision Zero action plan — at which point key stakeholder groups would be invited to share their data and lived experiences to refine the plan.
Coun. Tasha Henderson said youth, the Walkers Caucus, the school board, and other stakeholders will still have an opportunity to take part in the task force.
“The intent is for them to be involved when it makes sense for them to be involved,” she said.
At the December meeting, council approved a motion from Coun. Paul Minhas to appoint Coun. Daniel Fontaine as a council liaison to the Vision Zero task force.
“I look forward to the work that will be undertaken over the next number of months. We've all made it very clear at council that pedestrians are our number 1 priority. We want to make people safe on our roads, sidewalks, etc.,” Fontaine said. “So, I am very much looking forward to what the task force will have to bring forward to council in terms of recommendations.”
A staff report stated Hoboken, New Jersey assembled a Vision Zero task force. That city recently announced it had had seven consecutive years without a traffic-related fatality.
