Pedestrian deaths spike: councillor pushes $6M safety plan
Ward 8 councillor Nathaniel Schmidt wants the city to fund more traffic-calming measures as Calgary tracks toward a record year of fatal collisions.
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Calgary is on track to surpass last year's record of 38 deaths on city roads, with more than 10 fatal collisions already recorded in 2026. Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt is bringing a motion to council's executive committee Tuesday requesting $6 million from the city's operating surplus to expand traffic safety measures across all 14 wards.
The funding would be split evenly and used to install more rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs), marked crosswalks, speed cushions, crosswalk bump-outs and curb extensions. Schmidt also wants the city to compile a report by September on redirecting parking enforcement revenue to expand the existing safer mobility plan.
"We're seeing another year of potentially record-level incidents that result in injuries or fatalities," Schmidt said Sunday. "Any time we can do something to prevent deaths that are entirely preventable, we need to be able to act."
The motion ties the $6 million request to annual net revenue from traffic enforcement tickets. Last year Calgary recorded 29 fatal collisions, 13 of them pedestrians. The city's 2024-28 safer mobility plan aimed for a 25 per cent year-over-year reduction in serious incidents by 2028, but the trend has moved in the opposite direction.
The motion comes days after a pedestrian was killed Friday at the crosswalk at Bow Trail and 37th Street S.W. Council has made incremental moves on traffic safety, but the pace isn't matching the scale of the problem.