Ottawa city councillor wants ban on right turns at red lights

An Ottawa city councillor wants to implement a policy that would ban right turns on red lights in the city’s downtown after she witnessed an accident.

An Ottawa city councillor wants to implement a policy that would ban right turns on red lights in the city’s downtown after she witnessed an accident.

“It was pretty traumatic. I came out of City Hall on my bike, and right where I was about to cross the intersection at Elgin and Lisgar, I saw the immediate aftermath of this man splayed out on the road, obviously in a lot of pain,” Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster told the Ottawa Citizen.

“It was really devastating, especially considering a woman was killed (on July 8) crossing the street at Elgin and Laurier.”

Troster calls her initiative “Vision Zero,” a strategy which aims to put an end to traffic fatalities.

Troster saw a cyclist hit by a vehicle at the intersection of Elgin and Lisgar streets on Thursday afternoon near City Hall, who was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Saloni Aitawadekar, 27, was killed after being struck by a vehicle while crossing a busy downtown intersection earlier this month.

“Every act of road violence is a policy failure, but, with proper road design and proper regulation and policy, an accident or a mistake doesn’t have to become fatal,” said Troster on Thursday.

Aitawadekar’s death marks the second time someone has been killed at that intersection following a fatal crash in 2018.

“Every time I post about a near-miss or an accident, I get flooded with people saying, ‘It happened to me or almost happened to me,'” Troster said. “All of this was right beside City Hall and right beside Lisgar High School, and enough is enough.

“I think it’s time that we really take a look at this change, especially in the downtown core and even as a pilot project at the intersections that have the highest rates of (pedestrians and cyclists).”

Troster intends to present Ottawa city staff with a pilot project for the downtown core and other high pedestrian and cyclist areas to make turning right on a red light illegal.

“It’s every light and every corner and every time a car almost turns into you — it’s really scary and it’s just time to consider something a little bit radical to save people from getting hurt … It shouldn’t take another fatality to motivate change,” she said.

“I think we’re all just shocked, frankly, because it’s a lot of road violence all at once,” she said.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he was open to hearing Troster’s proposal and was willing to consult with the city’s transportation department.

“I’ve been alarmed by the number of incidents that have occurred involving pedestrians and cyclists this summer,” Sutcliffe told the Ottawa Citizen. “We need to do everything we can to make sure that everyone is safe, no matter how they’re travelling through our city.”

Right turns at red lights are already banned at many of the major intersections in Centretown. However, Troster noted that the inconsistency only further complicates the issue when “the rules are different from intersection to intersection.”

“There’s always a conversation that, if you ban right turns on a red, then people will be more aggressive trying to turn on the green when people are crossing,” she said.

“So there’s a lot we need to look at, but, if there’s a measure we know will have an immediate impact, I think it’s worth the inconvenience of a few more seconds for a driver.”