As Councillor Josh Matlow spoke about pedestrian deaths on the streets of Toronto, many of his colleagues milled about the chamber and chatted to one another.

“I don’t know how many people care about (road safety),” Matlow said, on Thursday, above the din. “I’m certainly not experiencing much interest in the issue right now, but I must say we are seeing so many pedestrians getting hit, it’s a real thing.”

As Matlow’s comments went unheard, he asked for council’s attention with little success.

“Council! Councillors!” Matlow said before turning off his microphone.

“I hope you see it as a priority.”

Council did, in the end, vote unanimously in support of a Vision Zero update as part of a five-year, data-driven plan to make roads safer for pedestrians, school children, older adults, cyclists and motorcyclists, and prevent aggressive and distracted driving.

The initiative’s budget for 2018 still needs to be approved later this month.

Vision Zero began last year, will continue through 2021, and is expected to cost the city a total of $80.3 million.

Despite the action plan, five pedestrians and two motorists died in the first 15 days of 2018. This represents a 250-per-cent increase over the total for traffic deaths at the corresponding time last year, police said. In 2017, of 68 road deaths, 42 were pedestrians.

“I’m not sure we are taking as seriously as we could the notion of Vision Zero and pedestrian safety,” said Councillor Mike Layton at council.

He read out statistics to help council “keep perspective.”

In 2014, before Vision Zero, the city installed 21 new traffic lights. In 2017, the first year of Vision Zero, it installed 22.

In 2014, the city set up two pedestrian crossovers as compared to four in 2017, Layton said. And, in 2014, it conducted 10 school zone safety audits and, in 2017, that number went down to six.

Vision Zero has been accelerated and expanded three times, according to a staff report, but “not quickly,” Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam said.

“If we really truly wanted to do something, we would do it.

“We wouldn’t just talk about it and simply write reports about it,” she said.

A community donation program is outlined in the staff report. By the end of 2018, donors will be able to make contributions online to “any specific countermeasure or program” within Vision Zero. Each donation must not exceed $50,000.

When the donation program was first proposed, it was slammed by organizers with the international campaign that inspired Toronto’s Vision Zero.

Vision Zero Network, based in the U.S., questioned Toronto’s commitment to reducing pedestrian deaths, saying a donation program indicated it was treating road safety as a nice-to-have amenity, not a need-to-have priority.

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The Vision Zero update council approved Thursday includes city staff proceeding with automated speed enforcement, investigating the feasibility of a red light camera program and considering a penalty system for both initiatives, as well as speeding up traffic safety measures in school zones.

So far, the city has installed speed limit signs, zebra markings, pedestrian signals, sidewalks, flashing beacons, senior safety zones, traffic control signals, speed humps and other road safety measures.

City staff is planning to report back to council next year, to revisit existing road safety measures and propose new measures for 2019 to 2024.