09-05-2025
After 29 fatal collisions last year, council agrees to fund $1 million more for traffic-calming on Calgary streets
The community development committee on Thursday unanimously endorsed pulling $1 million from a city reserve to supplement ongoing traffic-slowing measures.
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But after a year that saw 29 fatal collisions across Calgary, some councillors argued the budgetary request from administration should have been much higher.
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The city's mobility team's annual report highlighted an alarming uptick in fatal collisions and pedestrian deaths in 2024.
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According to the report, 29 fatal collisions occurred in Calgary last year, which was 21 per cent more than 2023 and the highest total in 11 years.
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Thirteen deaths last year involved pedestrians — a 225 per cent increase, after four pedestrians died in 2023.
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Of nearly 26,000 total vehicle collisions reported in Calgary last year, 2,908 people suffered injury and 571 were hospitalized, the report found.
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Staff who presented the report Thursday cited various reasons for the increased number of fatal collisions, including Calgary's rapidly growing population and a rising number of new drivers, but also a shortage of resources and funding to enhance traffic-calming measures.
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Included in staff's presentation was a request to withdraw $1 million from the city's Fiscal Stability Reserve to supplement the mobility team's 2025 budget and 'respond to urgent safer mobility improvements.' The funding would go toward installing more road humps and bump outs in collision 'hot spots,' improving crosswalk and intersection safety features, and enhancing public education initiatives.
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The mobility team's budget for safety improvements is $5 million a year, mobility director Ravi Seera said, adding they'll be asking council for $6.5 million in additional funding for 2026.
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While councillors supported the $1-million funding request unanimously, some suggested the mobility team needs more financial support to address the number of deaths Calgary saw on its roads last year. Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal encouraged the department to come to budget deliberations next November with a more robust ask of the new-look council.
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'I was hoping that with the (collision data) that we'd be more responsive to those numbers and ask for some extra funds so we can get these improvements sooner,' he told the presenters.
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'A million-dollar ask for this year is not much, given how big our city is. I urge you, coming November, that if $6.5 (million) is not enough, please be open with us. Look at everything and see if we need to put more money into it.'
