A pilot project to test no-turning-right-on-red lights at major intersections in Waterloo Region is one step closer to reality.
Regional councillors voted yes to the idea at a committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and now the project will come up at a full council meeting for final approval.
At that meeting of the Sustainability, Infrastructure, and Development Committee, councillors discussed how involved the Waterloo Regional Police Service would be in enforcing a ban on turning right at a red light.
WRPS Inspector Scott Griffiths told the Mike Farwell Show, “It’s definitely a very interesting conversation.”
He said when it comes to intersections, “Prohibiting right turns, or doing other things such as roundabouts, helps to contribute to increasing the opportunities for a safe traverse” by pedestrians and cyclists.
Griffiths said that looking at road design and management is always an important part of the strategy to reduce injury and death from collisions.
The pilot project would begin this fall, with a ban on right turns on red lights at 12 selected intersections, spread evenly around Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge.
WRPS Insp. Scott Griffiths
After at least one year of gathering data on the impact of that ban, staff will report back to regional council on how much of a difference it made in terms of reducing collisions and keeping people safe.
Councillors at Tuesday’s meeting were encouraged that technology from Kitchener-based MioVision would be used in the pilot project.
