‘It’s shocking’: CAA shows number of near misses with cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles

A report from CAA takes an in-depth look at close calls between cars, cyclists and pedestrians in Winnipeg. Jeff Keele reports.

A new report from CAA shows a shocking number of cyclists and pedestrians have experienced close calls with vehicles.

In an effort to improve road safety for all users, CAA monitored 20 intersections across Canadian cities, including in Winnipeg.

Over seven months, it recorded close to 617,000 conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.

“I mean, it’s sobering. It’s shocking,” said Coun. Janice Lukes.

That means one out of every 700 pedestrians and one in every 500 cyclists experience a high-risk or critical near miss with a vehicle.

“So if they would have actually happened and if there would have been a collision, they could have resulted in serious injury or death,” said Kristine D’Arbelles, the director of public affairs with CAA.

The study found left and right turns posed the most near misses, followed by through traffic.

CAA said to reduce these near misses, cities could add separated right-turn lanes, which slow down drivers, as well as give left-turning vehicles a dedicated green light before bikes and pedestrians.

Another recommendation is installing leading signals, giving pedestrians a five-second head start into an intersection, which Winnipeg recently did downtown.

The city has restrictions on some right turns and Lukes said the city is eyeing something similar for left turns.

“We’re doing a lot of traffic calming. We’re working at reducing—well, I’m looking at reducing the speed in residential neighbourhoods. The city’s done a pilot on it,” said Lukes.

As part of the study, CAA monitored St. Mathews and Wall Street in Winnipeg using an existing traffic count camera. CAA said this location was chosen because of the technological capabilities and not based on collision data.

CAA did not provide data on incidents at specific locations.