Mayor John Tory wants to look at dropping speed limits on Toronto’s busiest roads as part of an overhaul of city council’s “Vision Zero” plan that has failed to reduce pedestrians and cyclist deaths.

Tory said Wednesday that, to reduce the “carnage” on city streets, he supports dropping top speeds on primarily suburban arterial roads as well as more midblock crosswalks, more red-light cameras and, if the provincial government approves, photo radar in school zones across Toronto.

“Most drivers would say that it is better to keep the city safe ... even if it is the result in part of a modest program of speed limit reductions, than it is to have those people losing their lives, (primarily) children and seniors,” Tory told reporters after a speech.

The mayor, who has been accused by some safety advocates of being too timid in implementing potentially pricey intersection design changes, and other Vision Zero tactics reducing deaths elsewhere, did not suggest boosting safety funding in the recently set 2019 city budget.

According to statistics compiled by the Star, five cyclists and 42 pedestrians were killed on Toronto streets in 2018. That total is higher than any single year in a police database that goes back to 2007.

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Tory stressed he is only asking city staff for recommendations on looking at arterial roads where the limit could be dropped, and that members of the public would have a chance to respond before city council debates any proposals that flow from a staff report.

He noted many pedestrians killed last year were in Scarborough, with its many multi-lane roads and vehicles driving at 60 km/h or more.

A city study found the average walking distance between protected crossings in Scarborough is almost double that in the city core. The distance adds as much as six walking minutes to get to a safe crosswalk, and hikes the number of people crossing midblock.

“Which is why more pedestrians are being killed in Scarborough than any other area of the city,” Tory said. “That plus vehicles speeding through red lights.”

The mayor highlighted data collected through radar installed across the city that display vehicle speed but do not, at the moment, trigger the issuance of a speeding ticket.

One driver hurtled along Queen St. at 127 km/h, while another blasted through a 40 km/h zone on residential Renforth Dr. in Etobicoke at 202 km/h, Tory said, eliciting gasps from some at the Empire Club of Canada luncheon at a downtown hotel.

Councillor Paul Ainslie, who represents Ward 24 Scarborough-Guildwood, said he expects support for slowing traffic on his major roads along with inevitable grumbling from some drivers.

At a recent routine meeting he held at Markham Rd. and Lawrence Ave., Ainslie said a constituent asked, “‘When are you reducing speed limits on our streets?’ and everybody clapped. I was really surprised.”

The Star began keeping its own count of traffic deaths in 2017 to fill gaps in police numbers, which don’t include fatalities that occur on private property or the provincially owned 400 series highways.

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It’s unclear if the 2018 total was an all-time record, as the Star does not have independent data on pedestrian and cyclist deaths before that year.

Tory also used the speech, marking 100 days in office since his re-election, to say he wants to speed up the city plan to fix the sewer system and eliminate waste spills into Lake Ontario during storms, cutting the goal from 20 years to 10. He did not suggest a revenue source for any funding boost.

The mayor said he will talk to city staff about trying to make Toronto a more winter-friendly city for tourists and residents, with “winter-focused events and festivals here, more all-season patios and more winter recreation activities in our own public parks.”

With files from The Canadian Press and Ben Spurr

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