Following more than a dozen collisions in less than a month involving pedestrians and vehicles, Regina city council is planning to improve safety outcomes for residents. At Wednesday’s meeting, city council approved developing a Pedestrian and Cyclist Protection Strategy Action Plan. The motion passed 7 to 4 in favour, with councillors Dan Rashovich, Mark Burton, Jason Mancinelli and Clark Bezo voting against. The action plan aims to recommend policy and framework initiatives that will significantly improve safety outcomes for pedestrians, children, cyclists and other vulnerable road users. Between Sept. 18 and Oct. 8, at least 14 collisions involving vehicles and pedestrians, as well as cyclists or e-bikes, were reported according to Regina Police Service (RPS). The string of incidents resulted in multiple serious injuries and two fatalities. The motion was brought forward by Ward 8 Coun. Shanon Zachidniak and Ward 6 Coun. Victoria Flores who expressed their deep concerns. “If there’s a collision, obviously it’s very bad for the pedestrian or the cyclist, or whomever is not in the vehicle, but it’s also terrible for the people who are driving,” Zachidniak told council, referring to her previous conversations with RPS on the matter. “…The folks involved in these collisions who are in their cars, the drivers, they don’t fare well if they killed someone. If there’s a fatality, it doesn’t matter who’s at fault. You are impacted by that for the rest of your life.” Ward 10 Coun. Jason Mancinelli said the motion has good intentions. However, he voted against it as he believes it overlaps with the city’s current goals under its Vision Zero Safety Framework. “This is very much needed, but more to the fact that this is actually being done … when I hear the comments about Vision Zero and redirecting some of those funds from education of the drivers to better pedestrian safety, I wonder if that’s a balance of thought of educated drivers don’t hit pedestrians,” he said. “Is that at a cost of pedestrian safety? Has Vision Zero been thought out over years, or is this reactionary to a motion because I’m stepping into what’s administration’s job?” The city adopted its Vision Zero in 2024, with the goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries on Regina’s roads. The five key focus areas as part of the plan include vulnerable road users, intersection safety, distracted driving, aggressive driving and impaired driving. As part of the strategy, administration engages with “key road safety partners” on a monthly basis including the city’s Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC), CAA, SGI and school boards. Flores pointed out the strategy is beneficial to overall road safety in the city. However, it is not effective alone. “Countries and places that have not just adopted Vision Zero, but invested appropriately into the tools that Vision Zero provides, have decreased the number of fatalities and accidents by a lot. We know it’s a tool that works,” Flores said. “I know there is a number of crosswalks around our city that are kind of on the queue to be added. That would increase the level of safety that we have, but we are just not allocating the budget to it.” Flores added the Pedestrian and Cyclist Protection Strategy Action Plan would help fill the gap of limited data available that could help keep pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable individuals safe. “I don’t think these are competing priorities either, whether we do focus on cars or focus on pedestrians, but the reality is the pedestrians have a lot of missing data in this conversation, just by nature of the ability to report on that data,” she said. “Oftentimes it is hard for us to create policy or create priorities with how we allocate budget because that data is missing in that conversation. When we bring something like this to prioritize that, it helps alleviate some of that missing information in my view.” The Pedestrian and Cyclist Protection Strategy Action Plan is expected to be brought forward by administration for council’s consideration in the second half of 2027.
