The year’s not over but Council is done for the term, so our 2026 report card comes early. We’ll have a full-term report card coming out soon, stay tuned for that!
See our 2025, 2024 and 2023 scores here. As always, we look for every road safety motion that came to council, give it an “impact” multiplier, and award points based on how each person voted.
With an abbreviated year, we only saw 9 Vision Zero-relevant motions or amendments come to council in 2026. We’ll break each one down below, but here’s the summary; it’s the same familiar faces up top, and at the bottom:
Dim bright headlights (PASSED, impact = 2)
Sean Orr brought this motion to council to address the ever-brighter headlights on modern cars and the visibility and safety risks they pose. Although it was only a to higher levels of government, we bumped up the impact because the Federal government actually took note, and there was a storm of media attention. Here’s hoping something comes of it!
Priority snow removal on transit routes (FAILED, impact = 1)
Lucy Maloney brought this simple but great motion to make transit routes a priority for snow clearing in Vancouver; unfortunately ABC voted it down. Low impact as it’s true we don’t get much snow, and the roads currently prioritized are arterials which also happen to be the roads most buses use. Still, there was no reason to not pass this.
Car Free Day grant (PASSED, impact = 2)
For a while in 2026, it was looking like Car Free Days – our favourite events of the year! – were a thing of the past. With increasing costs and City austerity, they just didn’t have the funds. Luckily, Clrs Maloney and Orr stepped in and passed an emergency grant to make sure we got Main St and Commercial Dr Car Free Days in 2026. We were happy to see Council unanimously support this. Stop by our booth at Main St this year!
Preventing rollbacks on previous motions (FAILED, impact = 3)
There are few things more frustrating in advocacy than working hard to get something done, then seeing it reversed. Because of Ken Sim’s “Zero Means Zero” budget, staff had to cut back a lot of the work they were planning to do, including motions we had worked on such as safety upgrades for Cornwall Avenue, implementation of new bus lanes, adding truck side guards to city vehicles, and Granville Bridge suicide prevention barriers.
Clrs Bligh and Maloney tried to step in to save some of these items, but Ken Sim and ABC said no. You can read more about it here.
Vision Zero Action Plan implementation (MIXED, impact = 5)
This was without doubt the most important road safety item of the entire 4-year council term. Although elements of it passed, the core pillar of slower speeds on our deadliest streets was gutted by Peter Meiszner and his ABC colleagues. We’ve previously written about this at length here. This was the most cowardly and disappointing thing ABC has done their entire term.
Low Income Transit Pass (PASSED, impact = 2)
Another great Sean Orr motion, spearheaded by our friends at Movement. They describe it better than us! While again this only took the form of a letter to higher levels of government, the amount of positive attention it raised bumps up the impact.
VGH bike lane redesign (PASSED, impact = -2)
“Why spend $10 million building active transport lanes along 8km of Broadway when you can spend $20 million rebuilding 2 blocks of a parallel bike lane you one called ‘perfect’ ?” Few stories characterize the incompetence and waste of the current administrations better than this one.
Extending the Granville St pedestrian zone to September (PASSED, impact = 1)
Granville St was pedestrianized for the World Cup and it was a roaring success.
It was great to see council extend the pilot beyond the World Cup and into September. We had an awesome time hanging out here, and we would love to see it made permanent.
The impact would be higher, but in typical ABC fashion gave almost all the money to the police (why did this have to cost almost $5 million for a few extra weeks??) – and the police refused to say how they’d spend the money. If this is the precedent for how much pedestrianized spaces will cost, we’re worried we won’t see many more.
Additional money for road safety, active transport, and accessibility (FAILED, impact = 2)
When it came to planning the capital budget, Clr Maloney fought hard to get more funding for road safety. The full text of her amendment is below:
THAT Council direct staff to add $15 million to the Transportation Safety Management and Accessibility Program, with a particular emphasis on increasing the allocation for new traffic signals to address the installation outstanding queue and enhance pedestrian safety measures in the event of a crash, on maintaining traffic calming initiatives at levels consistent with the previous capital plan, and ensuring the continued expansion of Vancouver’s School Travel Planning program as last year committed by this Council;
FURTHER THAT Council direct staff to prioritize active transportation projects to be funded in the Capital Budget which deliver the highest impact through: significant safety upgrades at known high-crash intersections; large net new expansion of the protected active transportation network on useful and direct corridors; and speedy delivery through quick-build or interim construction methods;
AND FURTHER THAT Council direct staff, as part of the Capital Plan Mid-term Update, to prioritize funding for road safety and active transportation initiatives, including dedicating staff time to advance these programs – particularly when opportunities arise to secure additional cost- share funding from TransLink or senior levels of government
Unfortunately, sticking to their commitment to slash everything important to Vancouverites (except the VPD) so that millionaires can save a few dollars on their property tax bill, ABC voted it down. So much for being the party of public safety.
That’s it for our 2026 report card. Like we said, we’ll have a full-term report card coming out soon, plus several other election items, so please check back in!
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