Of the 30 traffic related deaths in Calgary so far in 2025, 11 of them have been pedestrians. This morning on the way to work at the intersection of 17th Ave and 5th St SW (east side of intersection) heading southbound an anxious driver turned right, right into myself and a woman in a crosswalk who was on her cell phone walking her dog. My eye is always on drivers making thinking about making a right turn. Our eyes met and he was unapologetic. The woman on her phone didn’t even know what had happened. This is not something that has happened once. I have experienced this on multiple occasions. I bet it’s happened to you too.
CTV News just ran a feature on the topic and the them was about “culture” and “awareness” as opposed to enforcement. Enforcement officials who are obviously not sanctioning aggressive drivers sufficiently and frequently enough in order to help with deterrence are deferring to our social condition in highlighting the problem. It’s peculiar to me when city budgets are stretched and responsible tax payers are fatigued that fines for such violations are not in the four figures for such infractions. With cameras at intersections…why are we not sending more tickets out in the mail? If we care about public safety and tax fatigue, why are campaigns to remove photo radar finding success?