‘People feel unsafe’: City working to address traffic safety in west Edmonton neighbourhood

Mayor Andrew Knack is planning to put forward a motion to change how traffic bylaws are enforced in response to multiple deaths in southwest Edmonton.

City council is making plans to address traffic safety concerns in the Edgemont neighbourhood in west Edmonton after a pedestrian died in August.

Edgemont resident Kyle McKenzie said he witnessed the 65-year-old woman get hit by a man driving a Ford F-350 while crossing Edgemont Boulevard with her 11-year-old grandson.

The woman was taken to hospital and later died of her injuries.

“Unfortunately I witnessed a pedestrian fatality at my corner, right in front of my house,” said McKenzie at the community’s traffic safety townhall Monday evening. “It’s just unfortunate that we need to have deaths before something gets done or before we start talking about traffic safety.”

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After the death of the woman, residents began calling on the city for increased safety measures.

“As the community is growing, a lot of residents have had concerns, and we’ve had unfortunately fatal accidents in the community,” said Edgemont Community League president Connor Hastey-Palindat. “The solutions are really straightforward, and we just need that investment from the city.”

Some of those solutions could look like speed bumps, stop signs, crossing lights or curb extensions.

“We’re hoping we can get that commitment to at least start looking into what the changes are and see if we can get a timeline for when we could see some change, especially before the new school is built,” said Hastey-Palindat.

Hastey-Palindat reached out to Ward sipiwiyiniwak Coun. Thu Parmar shortly after the municipal election to set up Monday’s townhall.

“We wanted to do this together,” said Parmar. “What I understand to be true is that people who live in communities know their communities best.”

More than 100 people showed up to the townhall with Mayor Andrew Knack also in attendance.

He said a lot of newer neighbourhoods share the same traffic safety concerns that have impacted Edgemont.

“Folks are speeding, people feel unsafe crossing, there have been tragic incidents,” said Knack. “They want to see action. They want to see something change. They want to know that their concerns are actually going to be taken care of.”

The city said it will be adding speed bumps and stop signs to the Edgemont area in the 2026 construction season.

Changes will need to be made to a lot of Edmonton’s new neighbourhoods, said the mayor, because many were approved under old rules that only required a developer to build a two-lane arterial roadway, leaving the city to play catch up on a number of roads as it continues to grow.

Widening already existing roads can come with a hefty price tag, costing the city tens of millions of dollars depending on the size.

Knack said he intends to make a motion creating a Traffic Safety Enforcement Team within the coming weeks.

The team would be modeled after something similar to what the City of Calgary recently implemented.

“It’s essentially a city-led bylaw team that can go out and enforce traffic safety rules so you’re not relying on the police service – who do their best, but they’re always stretched thin when it comes to traffic safety enforcement,” said Knack.

He said the team would be actively working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“What they found in Calgary is that within the first five months of having that team, that team, sadly, I guess, already paid for itself,” the mayor said. “Their entire year’s budget was recovered in just five months through their enforcement.”

The City of Calgary said it has issued more than 3,000 tickets since March through its Traffic Safety Team consisting of eight peace officers and two sergeants.

The team’s mandate focuses on enforcing speed limits in playground zones, addressing noisy vehicle violations and promoting safe driving habits.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny