A new version of the City of Hamilton’s Vision Zero Action Plan was presented to City Councillors last week.
Vision Zero is “Hamilton’s long-term commitment to improving roadway safety,” which is “founded on the principles that fatal and serious injury collisions are preventable, people make mistakes, and the transportation system should be designed to reduce the likelihood and severity of those mistakes.”
The plan’s vision is “a transportation system where fatal and injury collisions are eliminated for all road users.”
The plan, which spans from 2026 to 2032, is meant to build on the city’s first Vision Zero Action Plan which was approved in February 2019.
The City of Hamilton retained engineering consultants CIMA Canada Inc. to author the plan.
The authors note that fatal and injury collisions are down by 34 per cent since 2019 when the first Vision Zero Action Plan was released.
There were 1,936 injury collisions in 2016, but approximately 900 injury collisions and 13 fatalities in 2025.
The top road sections for injury collisions between 2015 and 2022 were listed as the Red Hill Valley Parkway, Queenston Road in the area of Nash Road, and Upper James Street in the area of Mohawk Road.
Over the next six years, the city is hoping to achieve “a sustained downward trend in fatal collisions” and a 20 per cent reduction in injury collisions.
To help achieve that, the Action Plan identifies 91 “countermeasures,” 39 of which are already being undertaken, 34 of which exist but are recommended for enhancements, and 18 of which are new.
The document says that the recommended measures are estimated to cost the city $2.3 million to implement, although that figure does not include staffing costs or costs for actions that are already being undertaken.
The countermeasures include engineering changes to improve roadway design, enforcement actions that can be undertaken, education, engagement, and evaluation methods.
A total of 63 countermeasures are related to engineering, 15 are related to education and engagement, nine are related to evaluation methods, and four are related to enforcement.
Countermeasures to improve intersections include increasing the visibility of stop signs and signals, clearing obstructing vegetation, increasing the painting of stop bars, and installing more flashing beacons and oversized stop signs.
The document also suggests installing oversized street name signs to increase visibility on arterial roads.
When it comes to turns, the action plan recommends full-time or time-of-day turn prohibitions using LED blank-out signs, restricting right turns when there is a red light, and left-turn calming treatments.
For signals, the plan says to implement more leading pedestrian intervals or leading bicycle intervals where pedestrians and cyclists can begin crossing an intersection before vehicles receive a green light.
It also recommends “compact roundabouts where appropriate.”
To help vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, the action plan recommends expanded infrastructure to support safe use of bicycles, including multi-use paths, protected cycle tracks, and bicycle boulevards.
The plan also says that the city should implement a snow removal program in the winter for that infrastructure.
In what would be a first for the City of Hamilton, the document also suggests the implementation of “pedestrian scramble phases” at select downtown intersections.
A pedestrian scramble phase is when vehicles in all directions receive a red light at the same time and pedestrians can cross in all directions, including diagonally.
It is also recommended that the city expand its school safety zone radius from 150 metres to 500 metres around schools, meaning 30 km/h reduced speeds and special speed enforcement for those areas.
Other suggested engineering measures include curb bump-outs, centre medians, curb extensions, increasing on-street parking to calm traffic, speed cushions and raised crosswalks, rumble strips before stop signs, and roadway narrowing such as flexible bollards.
In terms of enforcement, the plan recommends the expansion of the city’s red light camera program and increased unmarked police enforcement of distracted road users.
The authors also say that a review of speed limits across the entire city should be undertaken and that there should be investigations into each fatal collision by the city via a new Fatal Collision Review Committee.
Overall, the action plan also adds that the city must “embed inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility principles into transportation-based decision-making.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
