A motion comes to Public Works and Infrastructure Committee this Thursday asking that $10M be taken from a fund for vulnerable road users to plug a hole in the traffic signals budget.
The motion (see 5.1 on the agenda) asks that $10 million collected for the Road Safety Action Plan (RSAP) through the Automated Speed Enforcement and the Red Light Camera programs be redirected to the New Traffic Control Devices program (NTCD).
RSAP is an important program for people biking. The program has four emphasis areas—Vulnerable Road Users, High-Risk Drivers, Rural Areas, and Intersections. In fact, the NTCD already receives funding from RSAP—$5 million in 2025—and so the motion would triple the funding from RSAP this year. At the same time, the City points out that “the allocation of RSAP Program funding must be balanced to adequately target the plan’s four emphasis areas,” and that “allocating enhanced funding to one specific initiative may impact the ability to deliver projects under the other emphasis areas.” And so there’s a strong possibility that this motion means less funding to protect vulnerable road users.
The motion’s mover is Councillor David Brown, who last November successfully removed a protected cycling facility from a road resurfacing project outside a school.
This motion seems to violate another aspect of the program: the City says that decisions about RSAP funds “are data driven” and are directed toward interventions with “the greatest likelihood of reducing fatal and major injury collisions city-wide.” This motion, by contrast, simply seeks to plug holes in the new traffic signals budget.
But the 2025 Budget was discussed and approved last December; why wasn’t this hole plugged then? Why siphon off funds for cyclists and other vulnerable users for this lack of forethought?
If Council is looking for ways to spend money from RSAP, we have some ideas:
- Fund a third of the projects in the High-Volume Interactions, funding for which Committee Chair Tim Tierney called “scarce”
- Implement quick builds for active transportation projects in the 2023 Transportation Master Plan
- Create a bike share program
We’re writing to ask you to contact your councillor about this. Here are some points to share:
- Decisions about RSAP funds should be based on need to protect Ottawans, not on plugging holes in the budget
- RSAP funds are supposed to be used for all four emphasis areas, not just traffic signals
- There are many projects to protect vulnerable road users for which this money should be used