The Society solicited the input of 2024 municipal election candidates with respect to their commitment to crosswalk and road safety.   Following are the three questions asked and the verbatim responses of those who replied.   

1.   Enforcement is a pillar of road safety.  However the number of speeding tickets (SOTs) issued by Halifax (HRP and RCMP) police have decreased from 11,954 to just 1,901 over the past 11 years, an 84% decline.

      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

 2.   The 2024-2025 Traffic Safety Capital Budget again includes more than 50% of the budget for Traffic Calming on local and minor collector roads.  Yet the evidence demonstrates the vast majority of injuries occur on major collector and arterial roads, as well as at intersections, especially those that are signalized.

       Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest?  If not, why not?

 3.   HRM Regional Council recently adopted the Road Safety Strategy – A Way Forward.

       Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy?  Do you believe the funds invested in road safety             are not enough, about right, or too much?  Will you support increased budgets for road safety?



Mayor:   Andy Fillmore did not respond to the survey



District 1:   Cathy Deagle Gammon did not respond to the survey



District 2:   David Hendsbee

         1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

YES !

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

YES if that will increase more paved shoulders on our major collector and arterial roadways in Rural HRM

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

I prefer to see more investment in widening streets with left turning centre lanes on arterial roadway like Hwy 7 Main Street in Westphal.

And wider paved shoulders along Highway 207 and 7 and makes crosswalks on provincially controlled highways.



District 3:   Becky Kent

         1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

Yes I will work to increase speeding enforcement. As the Councillor for District 3, speeding is the number one complaint I hear about. Traffic calming measures are not always popular, but they do have a place for lowering speeding as well. As Chair of the Board of Police Commissioners, we can also request reports on effectiveness of police measures and fund when budgets come from each police agency, HRP and RCMP.

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

I would not support the reducing of Traffic calming budget at HRM because it’s still important for many local and minor collector roads. I have and will continue to advocate for solutions on major collector and arterial roads. The limitations for traffic calming must be removed on Major collector and arterial roads. I will work to have our road engineers in traffic safety find alternatives or new solutions to these roads as well.

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

I always support road safety strategies. Safety on our roads is difficult to address. There are far to many people who will speed and drive wrecklessly no matter what we do, but we have to try something measures. I believe red light cameras and speed cameras where tickets are issues will help. So yes I support the 2024 Riad Safety Strategy. Is it perfect. Perhaps not, but we must do something. I will support increases in road safety budgets if is directed at effective use. I think it could be always be increased as we grow and more vehicles are on the streets every day.



District 4 - Trish Purdy did not respond to the survey

 


District 5:  Sam Austin did not respond to the survey



District 6:   Tony Mancini

        1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

Enforcement requires having enough traffic officers.  As there are fewer officers there are fewer speeding tickets issued.  When was the last time you saw a radar trap set up in HRM other than the highways?  I have advocated every year to increase the police budget so that more police officers can be hired to enhance the traffic department.  Last year we were successful to increase the police budget to hire more police officers and those cadets are only now ready to start their training, and it is still not enough.

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

I don’t believe we need to reduce the Traffic Calming budget.  Our only method to slow down traffic is traffic calming especially since our traffic enforcement department is almost non-exciting. We do need to increase the budget for road safety. 


In addition to the current traffic calming measures, the municipality has asked permission from the province to do a pilot program using Speed Radar and Red Light Cameras.  The province has agreed however we are still a year away before the province completes writing the legislation to go along with these cameras.  I will be advocating that the province prioritizes the new regulations to replace the Motor Vehicle Act.


 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

I support the Strategic Road Safety Plan and will continue to advocate that Council invest more money in road safety measures. 


District 7:   Laura White

 1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

Yes, but I hope to do it via photo radar. My understanding is that the provincial Traffic Safety Act has passed, but we are waiting on the Regulations to be able to implement photo radar.

I also understand that many HRP officers are away from work on stress leave so perhaps that is part of the problem. Issuing speeding tickets seems like a reasonable and appropriate use of officer’s time, especially if we can recoup the cost of enforcement in the fines, but long term, I’d like to see our road design change substantially so that speeding is not as attractive.

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

Yes. Our spending should line up with our strategic priorities.

I would like to see protected intersections implemented. 

We do need traffic calming on local streets too, as they are so wide and encourage speeding, but I think we can do this over time with redesign to add chicanes, bike parking, strategic vehicle parking, parkettes etc.

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

Here are my thoughts on the 2024 Road Safety Strategy:

Transportation Standing Committee 19 June 2024 – Laura White

So, yes, I support the strategy, but think it could go further.
I am not aware of the dollar values invested, but I support increased budgets for road safety that get results (aiming for vision zero.) So many roads are designed for speeds much higher than is reasonable. We need to change our design standards and apply IMP values to each road when it is due for major resurfacing.


District 8:  Virginia Hinch did not respond to the survey



District 9:   Shawn Cleary

         1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

Elected officials cannot legally direct the police in their operations. I will certainly advocate for safer streets, especially for vulnerable road users. As well, I will continue to request that the provincial government speed up the adoption of regulations and new computer system that will allow them to finally proclaim the new Traffic Safety Act, to replace the MVA. This will finally allow NS municipalities to use photo radar and red light cameras, which have been proven in other jurisdictions to provide a cost effective way to reduce violations and dangerous behaviours in the roadway.

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

The budget for road safety is found in many places, including significant amount of the road paving budget (over $79 million in 2024-25). We need to increase, not decrease the budget for road safety. All of our streets need safety improvements, especially local residential streets. In my own neighbourhood, a fatal collision happened when a 69-year-old woman was hit by an SUV on a local street in 2019. Since then, the street has been traffic-calmed and there has been no more fatal or injury collisions in the area.

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

I wholeheartedly endorse the Strategic Road Safety Plan and will continue to push my colleagues to invest much more in road safety measures.


District 10:   Kathryn Morse

         1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

Yes.  

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

I support better data collection and evidence-based decision-making and I believe HRM is improving in this area.  I also support better alignment between road safety capital budgets and high risk locations.

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

Yes I endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy and its focus on intersections, schools, vulnerable users and better data collection.  I think the money HRM is spending is about right.  An inexpensive change that would make a vast improvement in traffic safety is to reduce residential maximum speeds to 40 km/h across HRM but that is a Provincial decision. 


District 11:   Patty Cuttell did not respond to the survey



District 12:  Janet Steele

         1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

I will call for increased enforcement of speeding in HRM. In addition to enforcement, I  will call for more education of drivers, walkers, rollers, cyclists to foster safety for all. As an avid runner and dog walker, I see many traffic infractions daily and more enforcement would contribute to enhanced safety for all.

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

This is a challenging question as you are not identifying the major collector and arterial roads. In principle, I support using scarce budget dollars in areas of greatest need but I would need to see more data to develop a comprehensive position on the issue. Finally, measures such as reducing the speed limit on high traffic streets and using temporary speed displays may be a low cost approach to reducing risk.

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

On the road safety strategy, yes, I  believe this needs to be a priority. To date on August 31, road safety is the number one issue being raised by residents of District 12. Without the detailed road safety data and more analysis on other budget priorities, it is challenging to provide an informed position. What I can say is residents are currently unhappy with the amount of traffic and speeding on residential streets and they would like to see increased traffic enforcement and education.



District 13:   Nancy Hartling did not respond to the survey



District 14:   John Young

         1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

As I campaigned, knocked on doors and spoke with the residents of District 14 these past few months, speeding is a major issue of concern. Increased police presence, speed bumps in certain areas, the addition of coordinated crosswalks, increase and decrease of speed limit signs on specific roads in specific places and higher fines for speeding have been some of the responses from the residents of District 14. 

We must make District 14 a road safety community and with Increased Road Safety being part of my platform it is a major high priority for this district, along with the rest of HRM.

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

I support the Traffic Calming Budget as long as it aligns with the highest priorities of need. We also need to look at alternatives to vehicle traffic congestion by implementing a vision for HRM beyond an election "term" solution.

Here are some District 14 alternative solutions (of course, it would have to be worked out with thorough community engagement and feedback to tweak the possibilities and would also include egress-emergency evacuation exits- strategic planning)

-High-speed above ground rail- i.e. from the Highfield Park Terminal (Dartmouth) non-stop to the Cobequid Bus Terminal (Lower Sackville) both ways, 
-Reversible 3rd lanes on specific roads
-Coordinated timing traffic lights with sensors on specific roads
-Immediate ticket speed traffic cameras
-3rd lane 2-way street car on widened road equipped with a multiuse pathway- i.e. from Hammonds Plains Road to the Bedford Highway with park and ride at designated stops - ready for express transit buses direct to highway non-stop to the downtown
-Addition of coordinated traffic lights on spefic roads to allow for positive traffic flow. 

These are just a few traffic management alternatives that could be discussed to increase road safety and positive traffic flow.
 

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

I endorse the Road Safety Strategy but there are areas improvement that could take place and those specific would have to be looked at in the case of a budget increase for it.



District 15:  Billy Gillis did not respond to the survey



District 16:  Jean St-Amand

         1.      Will you call for substantially increased enforcement of speeding in HRM?  If not, why not?

Generally speaking, yes. But I’d like to see it done with technology (which we’re not permitted to do yet) and I’d like to see our data management and analytics capabilities continue to expand and provide evidence along the way that each strategy implemented is working or requires adjustment to get the right mix of strategies. 

I’d like to look deeper at the underlying reasons for the notable decline in the number of speeding tickets issued. In 2023 in particular, HRM invested (and continues to expand) its data analytics capabilities specifically for road safety, and that data flows into HRM’s year over year key performance indicators to help the city understand the effectiveness of its strategies, of the gaps therein, and make adjustments on an evidence basis. I would like to know whether the analytics servicing its KPIs demonstrated a valid reason for the decline in speeding tickets. I suspect we have a solid if not entirely complete picture of what the reasons are in the data being collected already. Our first step is to inform our next move based on analyses and conclusions drawn from that data. 

A consideration of note is the Board of Police Commissioners report on Police Reform. While traffic safety was most certainly not a significant part of the report (while equity of policing in general, which is mentioned in the Road Safety Strategy as well), the broader discussion around how police officers are tasked, and where their time is spent that provides the appropriate return on our investment in policing is a factor to be weighed, and likely plays a role in the speeding ticket decline, though it may not have been observed directly in the KPIs’ supporting data analytics metrics. Tasking of police officers – and their tasks are broad and significant – quickly identifies gaps in service brought about by diminishing supply of resources, particularly person hours. If officers’ working hours are being dominated by other types of calls, that might help explain the decrease in ticketing. 

Enforcement, as you note, is a pillar of road safety, and there are multiple pillars pointed to in the 2024 Road Safety Strategy from HRM that come into play. Enforcement is important to be sure, and it is included in the 2024 Road Safety Strategy for that reason. The KPIs HRM uses to evaluate success includes the number of summary offense tickets issued but the detail in the Strategy document ends there – but as I note above, there are other broader policing considerations that may influence those figures. Safe speeds (section 5.3.2) is also cited as a key priority area, with enforcement as one of multiple variables that influence achievement of that priority. Neighbourhood design to naturally reduce speeds, speed calming measure installation when appropriate and possible, education and awareness campaigns, and of course enforcement. 

Enforcement is a tool that could be expanded without additional demand on police officers’ limited time-on-shift with the implementation of enforcement automation tools that are not yet, unfortunately, permitted legislatively. That should change. Such a capacity would permit more flexible implementation of enforcement that would be independent of the human resource hours that must otherwise be stripped away from a police officer’s tasking while on shift. We require the Province to make legislative changes to provide that additional facility to Halifax Police and the RCMP. It would also serve to expand the data set we have available to evaluate and refine our approach to road safety. Undoubtedly the Crosswalk Safety Association is an advocacy group that can assist in calling for such a step to give police services to have such a tool to reinforce their enforcement capacity. That’s an effort I would wholeheartedly support. 

 2.      Will you support substantially reducing the Traffic Calming Budget such that the expenditures of road safety capital budgets are aligned with where the risk is greatest? If not, why not?

I think the traffic calming measures on local and collector roads is a potentially flawed though well-meaning response to one specific Key Performance Indicator outlined in the 2024 Road Safety Strategy, balanced against another that is more objective by nature. The KPI #7 is “median change in the 85th percentile speed on traffic calmed by streets by sub-region.” That can be measured objectively. Meanwhile KPI #8 is “user perception of safety within the municipality and individual polling districts” and that KPI had the potential to muddy the first to some degree. User perception of safety includes many factors, and is inherently subjective. It can be influenced by recency bias, as well as a host of other internalized factors that are difficult to measure. 

Parents will often perceive the speed of a car going down their street as being higher than it actually is, for example. It’s a natural protective instinct. But it doesn’t necessarily mean than speeding is occurring, though it might be reported as such in a user survey. While I think the perception of safety is a vital measure, I have reservations about the weight this KPI may or may not play into the evaluation of streets that have or are being considered for traffic calming – which is by and large in response to requests by local residents. The street is evaluated to determine whether such measures are warranted before the infrastructure is implemented, and then clearly at the basis of the KPIs, the effect of the investment is measured. But what happens when that target median change in the 85% percentile speed is not achieved? We’ve already spent the money on the infrastructure. 

I can say I support and examination of whether street calming is having the desired effect as compared to other measures outlined in the Road Safety Strategy. I suspect such an examination would find other strategies, balanced with some but less traffic calming, might serve us better. I would anticipate considerable push-back from the community, however, which council must find a way to address (a component of the communications and education strategy also mentioned in the 2024 Road Safety Strategy, perhaps). I can share that as a candidate I have been contacted by multiple community members from different areas in District 16, each clamoring for traffic calming to be instituted in their area. The public sees this measure as the only mechanism to slow people down. I’ve spoken with others long roads that have had such traffic calming measures installed recently, lamenting that it hasn’t been successful. Anecdotal the evidence may be, as a city, and a council member, I would be looking for a better strategy and a way to rally awareness of and support for those measures in the community.

 3.      Do you endorse the 2024 Road Safety Strategy? Do you believe the funds invested in road safety are not enough, about right, or too much? Will you support increased budgets for road safety?

The 2024 Road Safety Strategy paints a clear picture of what our goals are and how they will be measured. For that reason, yes, I support it. The KPIs outlined have been in place long enough that we ought to be able to identify some early trends and respond accordingly. The data that HRM is meant to receive from HRP and the RCMP to help assess the outcomes of its strategies play and important role. A re-balancing of the tactics used within the strategy to effect change in pursuit of Vision Zero may call for addition investment in road safety measures, and with the evidence to back us up, I would support increased investment. Our return on investment isn’t just a budget consideration, it’s the lives we improve – and save – by taking road safety seriously. A truly safe transportation network throughout our city will be better for everyone.