Government: Decoded
Globally, road safety advocates have been pushing for speed limit reductions in cities — it’s one of the most effective ways to reduce serious injuries and fatalities on our roads. Despite the fact that this may greatly increase your chances of survival in a collision, it can be a hard sell for car-centric cities — like the GTA. Researchers have just driven this point home for Toronto, releasing study data that shows a 67% decline in serious injuries and fatalities for pedestrians when speed limits are decreased. For this hotly contested issue, it remains to be seen if the data will be embraced by City Hall.
At the provincial level, Ontario has just released a remix of vehicle licence plates, featuring a blue background with white text. While some appreciate the refresh, police have mixed reviews about the visibility of the plates in dark conditions. Government officials have assured the public that the plates went through extensive visibility testing, but real-life photos highlight issues. Like the old plates? At the time of writing, you can still order custom plates with the old colour scheme.
Newsworthy
New York City is trying to crack dangerous driving by all means necessary. The latest idea? Sending offending drivers back to driving school. New Yorkers with a poor driving record (think 15 speeding tickets or five red-light camera violations) will be sent to a driver safety course. Don’t want to go back to school? Violators face potential vehicle seizure. The initiative is the first of its kind in the U.S., and was informed by data that reviewed the behaviour of serial traffic offenders.
