Aggressive driving a contributor to collisions in HRM
Anyone walking, rolling or driving likely has something to say about traffic safety and driver behaviour on HRM roads.
On Thursday, municipal staff gave an update to the transportation committee on the strategic road safety framework and the progress they’re making toward the goals of reducing transportation fatalities and injuries to zero by the year 2038, and reducing fatal and injury collisions by 20 per cent by the end of this year.
Coun. Patty Cuttell (Spryfield – Sambro Loop – Prospect Road) said this is a high priority for residents.
“I get a lot of calls, it’s in the top three issues I hear from residents on a regular basis. It’s about traffic safety for pedestrians, cars, for bicycles,” she said. “It’s high on people’s minds.”
Aggressive driving
The report has some interesting graphs that show the driving behaviour of residents.
One shows that aggressive driving was a contributor to 27 per cent of fatal and injury collisions in 2022. The biggest piece of the pie (58 per cent) is mostly human error and weather-related contributors. Distracted driving is five per cent and impaired driving is one per cent.
Lucas Pitts, director of traffic management, told the transportation committee that there is talk about post-pandemic driving behaviour.
“Every year there are more students, more tourists, more people walking our streets, more people driving in our community, so I’m not sure if that plays a factor. Certainly there is a lot of conversation that there’s a post-COVID anger out there, people are driving more aggressively, but that’s just anecdotal.”
There were 11 fatal collisions and 776 injury collisions in HRM last year (which includes crashes on provincial roadways). Per 100,000 population, fatal and injury collisions went down 11.6 per cent in 2022 compared to the average in 2018-19. Of course, collisions were significantly down in 2020 because of the pandemic lockdowns.
“While progress has been made, the importance of prioritizing road safety remains, as no loss of life is acceptable,” staff wrote in their report.
Not as rosy as it seems
Reality on the roads does not match the report, Norm Collins, president and treasurer of the Crosswalk Safety Society of Nova Scotia, told the committee Thursday.
“Our society does not view the progress to be as rosy as we believe the report suggests.”
He said the improvement statistic of 11.4 per cent is misleading because when the framework was created, the goal was established as an absolute change, not according to population. He said the improvement is actually 2.4 per cent. He pointed out other gaps in the statistics and that education and enforcement is lacking.
Pitts said that population growth is exceptional right now and the decision was made to incorporate that element into that statistic.
Top 10 priority intersections
Staff also updated the top 10 priority intersections in HRM. This list is based on the number of fatal and injury collisions in the last five years, as well as previous road safety studies and how they connect with other ongoing projects
These intersections will get the most attention in the next four years as staff will develop “road safety action plans” for each one:
- Burnside Drive at Wright Avenue
- Bayers Road at Connaught Avenue
- Albro Lake Road at Victoria Road
- Bayers Road at Joseph Howe Drive and Dutch Village Road
- Mumford Road at Halifax Shopping Centre
- Burnside Drive at Commodore Drive and Ronald Smith Avenue
- Bedford Highway at Hammonds Plains Road
- Portland Street at Spring Avenue and Portland Estates Boulevard
- Dutch Village Road at Joseph Howe Road
- Chebucto Road at Connaught Avenue
Primary causes of pedestrian and cyclist versus vehicle collisions
In the staff report, data shows most pedestrian collisions at intersections are with cars going straight (44 per cent) and next is turning right (38 per cent).
Cars turning right or going straight are also the biggest causes for cyclist collisions. Staff pointed out that there were three intersections in particular where cyclists were repeatedly hit by vehicles last year:
- Windsor Street at Willow Street
- Alderney Drive at Kings Wharf Place
- Robie Street at Coburg Road
Projects on the go now
With increasing budgets for road safety — $5.5 million in 2023-24, the largest investment ever — HRM has several projects geared toward making the streets safer. Some of these include lowering the speed limit to 40 kilometres an hour in many neighbourhoods, giving pedestrians an advance at intersections, protected bike lanes and speed cushions.
Staff reported that there are also several changes to traffic signals happening this year where traffic signals are being designed or updated at intersections such as Connaught Avenue at Almon Street and Lacewood Drive at Dunbrack Street.
