Vision Zero

Nanaimo’s Official Community Plan, Nanaimo Reimagined,  supports a Vision Zero approach to safe mobility. Vision Zero means taking a proactive, preventative approach that prioritizes traffic safety as a public health issue. The goals of Vision Zero are elimination of traffic fatalities and serious injuries, and safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.

Achieving Vision Zero requires systemic changes, and it requires that both policy makers and individual road users take responsibility.  Traffic calming is an important piece of moving towards Vision Zero. 

Traffic calming uses physical features within roadways to discourage drivers from certain inappropriate behaviours, which in turn offers comfort and safety improvements for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. 

Common traffic calming issues include:

• Pedestrians and cyclist safety from drivers at intersection

Regulatory measures such as stop signs, traffic signals, and crosswalks are not appropriate methods of traffic calming.  These tools are meant to control vehicle and pedestrian traffic movements and clarify who has right-of-way, as opposed to controlling traffic speeds. When these tools are applied incorrectly, drivers learn to disregard them and there is the potential for decreased public safety.  

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