For a party obsessed with “public safety”, ABC’s infrastructure decisions are proving deadly.
On March 14, at 3am in the morning, a driver lost control of his car on Stanley Park drive and crashed into a tree. The driver suffered life-threatening injuries. His 18-year-old passenger was killed.
When ABC came to power in 2022, one of their very first actions was to remove the Stanley Park bike lane. This cost half a million dollars – money taken from the very fund meant to improve cycling infrastructure. We warned this would make the park more dangerous, not only for cyclists, but for everyone travelling through the park.
A study after the bike lane’s removal confirmed our fears. The number of drivers exceeding the speed limit by at least 20km/h increased from 11% with the lane, to over 50% post-removal. Restoring two-lane traffic enabled reckless speeding and racing through the park–issues the bike lane had helped curb.
While the crash remains under investigation, speed was almost certainly a factor. Had the bike lane remained, with a narrower roadway and concrete barriers, that teenager might still be alive.
This story is only one example of a disturbing trend over the past 2 years. Our leaders’ choices have consequences.
In the summer of 2022, a collision at Cornwall and Arbutus sent a car careening onto the sidewalk, where it hit and seriously injured a 5-year-old girl. Cornwall has narrow sidewalks and borders one of Vancouver’s busiest beaches. The city has been studying safety improvements for well over a decade, with no action.
Tired of waiting, Councilor Christine Boyle of OneCity proposed a fix, bringing forward a motion to reduce the speed limit on Cornwall from 50km/h to 30km/h and introduce traffic calming. Inexplicably, Clr Mike Klassen of ABC amended this to 40km/h, a much deadlier speed.
In addition – in a pattern we’ll see again – he decided we needed to further “study” improvements to Cornwall. We still haven’t seen this study 2 years later.
On Christmas Eve of 2024, this street was in the news again. A motorcyclist collided with an SUV at Cornwall and Balsam, and died of his injuries. His female passenger continues to fight for her life in hospital. Lower speed limits, traffic calming, and a wider sidewalk would have made this outcome far less likely. The research is clear: these intersections save lives. Yet ABC’s inaction left this corridor as dangerous as ever.
Cornwall Avenue wasn’t Christine Boyle’s only traffic safety motion defeated by ABC. In November 2023, we worked with her on a motion that would have asked the province to install speed and red light cameras at Vancouver’s most dangerous intersections: those that had over 100 collisions in the past 5 years, or over 50 if they were near a school.
Intersection safety cameras are an extremely effective method for making streets safer. São Paolo in Brazil used them (in combination with lowering speed limits) to reduce traffic fatalities by 1/3 nearly overnight. In Vancouver, that would be about 3-5 people per year whose lives could be saved, not to mention hundreds of life-altering injuries prevented.
But instead of passing this, ABC Councilor Brian Montague of ABC amended it to “more study” instead. A year later, we have neither the cameras nor the studies.
In March 2024, a pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run at Nanaimo and Hastings. This is a known high-danger intersection. It already has a red light camera; under Boyle’s motion, it would have received a speed camera as well. Montague was not impressed with us pointing this out (he’s wrong about the location already having a speed camera).
We’ve already discussed the effects of speed on the probability of a pedestrian surviving a crash, and we know these cameras reduce speed. But instead of a camera, we got an imaginary study, and a dead victim. “Pathetic and disgusting” is right.
Just a month later, a cyclist was killed by the driver of a pickup truck at 11th and Clark.
This section of Clark is known to be dangerous, with speed and red-light-running well-documented issues. Under Boyle’s motion, this stretch would have been significantly calmed, with new speed and red light cameras on Broadway and 12th. This crash was preventable.
A couple of months later, the situation nearly repeated itself at 10th and Clark, although fortunately this cyclist survived a very serious collision. 10th Avenue is the most dangerous street for cyclists in the entire lower mainland, yet ABC nixed protected bike lanes on Broadway that would have provided a safe alternative.
In just 2.5 years, ABC has done enormous damage, with deadly consequences. Their explicit policies and their deliberate inaction have contributed to a growing toll of preventable deaths and injuries. The solutions for safer streets are proven—lower speeds, concrete barriers, protected lanes, and road designs that prioritize human life over vehicle speed. Ken Sim and his party have repeatedly opposed these measures, choosing to make our roads more dangerous.
The greatest failure is not just the harm caused by their decisions but the lives lost due to their inaction. Every preventable death on our streets is a direct result of leadership that prioritizes politics over public safety. ABC cannot claim surprise, nor can they evade responsibility. The blood on our roads is also on their hands.
Vision Zero Vancouver 