Winnipeg sees increase in pedestrian, cyclist deaths in 2024

Winnipeg has already surpassed 2023 for the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed during motor vehicle collisions, with still four months remaining in the year. 

According to Winnipeg Police, eight pedestrians and two cyclists have already been killed so far this year, an increase from five pedestrians and zero cyclists killed in all of 2023. 

The numbers come after Winnipeg has seen a number of cyclists and pedestrians struck by drivers in the last few weeks.

A pedestrian was killed early Thursday morning after a driver struck them and fled the scene in the area of Queen Elizabeth Way and Mayfair Avenue.  

A young teen cyclist was struck by a driver in late July at the intersection of Wellington Crescent and Academy Road, and another cyclist, Rob Jenner, was killed metres away at the intersection of Wellington Crescent and Cockburn Street in June. 

Jeannette Montufar-MacKay the founding partner & CEO of MORR Transportation in Winnipeg says we need to re-think how we make our roads safer.

“What we do in North America is that we budget so much for safety improvements. In some European countries what they do is that they blend safety into everything that they do,” Montufar-MacKay said.

Vision Zero, an approach that aims to have zero fatalities or serious injuries from traffic collisions, has already been adopted by several cities including Edmonton and Toronto.

According to the City of Edmonton, they saw a 63 per cent decrease in the number of traffic-related fatalities since they implemented the strategy in 2015 while a 54 per cent drop in pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries.

Here in Winnipeg, the city’s Road Safety Strategic Plan aims to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by 20 per cent over a five-year period (2022-2026).

“The plan uses a Safe System approach, taking into account that road users will make mistakes when designing infrastructure. The Safe System sets the approach for achieving Vision Zero. It recognizes that Vision Zero can only be achieved by taking a systems approach and integrating efforts amongst a multidisciplinary team of stakeholders and that road safety is a shared responsibility,” the Winnipeg Road Safety Strategic Action Plan read.

“It’s not something that we can only attribute to the road user or the infrastructure or to the vehicle, or regulations. It is a combination of elements. In many cases, we are dealing with a culture issue,” Montufar-MacKay said.

Maurice Masliah, with Headlight Consulting, says, that while municipalities across Canada have taken some steps to make roads safer, more drastic changes that may demand more resources or money haven’t been taken by most.

“A lot of the low-hanging fruit has been picked. We know what it takes to be safer, we know that it is a function of speed and separation of vulnerable road users from vehicles and trucks. We are living to live with that cost of lives because it is convenient.”