Mayor John Tory announced a series of new measures Tuesday aimed at increasing street safety and improving the flow of traffic on Toronto's busy roads.

The recommendations come out of a new report by city staff for the public works committee and include proposals to hire traffic wardens to direct traffic at major intersections, install photo radar to reduce speed violations and designating new school safety zones.

"These changes will help ensure better safety measures on our streets, particularly around schools and in neighbourhoods, while addressing gridlock in some of the city's busiest intersections," said Tory at a press conference at the intersection of University Avenue and Adelaide Street.

Tory said the city is planning to hire an unspecified number of traffic wardens to manage traffic at major intersections, especially during evening rush hours. The city will post job listings for the positions later this week and paid duty police officers will be deployed starting Monday until traffic wardens are on the job.

"Intersections like this one at Adelaide and University can be particularly problematic during the evening rush hours," said Tory.

"We will soon have someone making sure that traffic moves through in an orderly and safe manner and that pedestrians and cyclists will be kept safe at all times."

The city will also start a pilot program this summer that will see photo radar technology employed in neighbourhoods with schools to help enforce the rules of the road.

Calming traffic down in neighbourhoods

Additionally, the city will lift an 18-year moratorium on the creation of community safety zones and will designate 100 new school safety zones. The designations will allow the city to double fines for speeding in those areas and introduce other traffic calming measures.

"This is a significant change that I hope will be approved by council and send a message that we have to calm traffic down," said Tory.

Pedestrians walk between cars blocking the intersection of Front and York Streets, near Union Station. (John Rieti/CBC)

The report also outlines a new process for streamlining requests from residents who want traffic calming measures like speed bumps or stop signs installed in their neighbourhood.

Tory said the city received over 500 requests for traffic calming measures from Toronto residents last year. But only 30 to 40 were acted upon, he said, and those that were took an average of two years to be installed. Tory said that is "unacceptable."

The mayor did not introduce any new measures related to last week's van attack in North York, saying the city needed to balance the need for security with the freedom of movement.

"It's a very big city and the notion that we can protect every sidewalk, on every occasion, every day is something that is probably not feasible," said Tory.

"I think we have to be careful in how we go about making sure that a safe city doesn't become a city that is making people uncomfortable because of the measures you take."