Nicole Burnat has ordered Christmas gifts for her daughter that she won’t ever get to give.

Earlier this month, Burnat’s daughter Madeleine Petrielli, who would have turned 16 on Dec. 14, was struck and killed while walking home with her boyfriend, Thomas Grant.

The traffic light on Britannia Rd. in Mississauga was amber, and the walk sign hadn’t yet lit up when the young couple began to cross the road, Grant said. As Madeleine continued forward, she was struck. Police said paramedics at the scene and doctors at the hospital tried but couldn’t save her.

Police said speed was not a factor. Grant said his girlfriend never saw the car. A Swedish-born approach to traffic safety, Vision Zero, says none of that should matter — that no one should die on the road, even if they make a mistake.

When thinking about the spot where her daughter was hit, Burnat is left reeling with uncertainty. She said there were no street lights, and the street on the other side was only marginally lit.

“What if the street lights were working?” she asked. “Would this have happened? Would Madeleine be with me?”

Graham Larkin is executive director at Vision Zero Canada, an advocacy group working to raise awareness nationwide about the approach to pedestrian safety. When asked about what happened to Madeleine in Mississauga, he said that police should never say speed isn’t a factor, since he believes it always is.

Larkin said the multi-lane intersection where Madeleine was killed was designed for cars, not people. That sort of car-centric design, Larkin said, pushes commuters to drive instead of walk or bike to where they need to go — something he believes makes roads both more congested and dangerous.

Awaiting budget approval, Toronto says it will join a growing list of cities, including New York, Edmonton, San Francisco and Seattle, in adopting a Vision Zero approach to traffic safety in 2017. The idea deems safety more important than speed and follows a philosophy that “no loss of life is acceptable.”

In a news release on Dec. 5, the Toronto Police Service said 2016 has seen more fatal collisions than any year since at least 2005. More than 40 pedestrians have died so far, representing more than half of all traffic deaths in Toronto this year, the release said.

Peel Region spokesperson Ken Chiu said the region doesn’t yet have a stand on Vision Zero, but officials there are discussing the new approach. He said Peel is currently seeking public input on how to move ahead with a new transportation safety plan.

Chiu said the new strategy is expected to be developed and released next year, “so we’ll have clarity on Vision Zero or any elements they may borrow from Vision Zero for a made-in-Peel solution with targets and visions reflective of our network,” he wrote in an email. “Staff are trying to focus on real outcomes and what can be achieved.”

In Toronto’s case, some critics say the city’s plan comes up short, lacking the political will, substance and money to back up the promise in its name and its ambitious target.

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While data collection being done by the city is an important step forward, Larkin said he’s concerned that some of the educational components of its plan take an old-school approach: the onus is on road users to keep themselves and others safe, instead of the infrastructure explicitly protecting them.

When Toronto first unveiled its five-year road safety plan in June, its goal was to cut traffic-related deaths and injuries by 20 per cent over the next decade. A month later, city council unanimously endorsed a much heftier aim: cutting the number of road deaths and injuries to zero as part of its five-year plan. With a budget of just over $80 million — about $12 million more than had been promised — the plan passed.

When drafting this new road strategy, Toronto compared itself with other Vision Zero cities in North America. The city’s traffic safety unit manager, Roger Browne, calls Sweden an inspiration and New York a mentor.

Browne said he didn’t want to comment on the collision that killed Madeleine Petrielli as it took place in a different municipality. But he noted that pedestrian safety is emphasized in Toronto’s new plan. He said some of the measures the city is working on include longer pedestrian crossings, new zebra markings and new speed signs on more than a dozen roads where limits have been reduced by 10 kilometres per hour.

Critics of Toronto’s plan say its zero target is unrealistic considering the actions outlined to make it happen. Vision Zero Canada’s Larkin suggested Toronto should look globally at cities as examples to emulate — instead of focusing on those closer to home that have recently shifted to Vision Zero.

“For us, you have to start to think in a different way to solve your safety problems,” said Matts-Ake Belin, project leader with the Vision Zero Academy in Sweden. “When I see it from outside, I’m not sure all cities — for instance in the U.S. and some cities in Canada — really understand some of the basic philosophy underpinning Vision Zero.”

It assumes some human error is inevitable and puts the responsibility on governments and infrastructure to mitigate that risk. It is not the job of pedestrians to wear reflective gear to be seen, but instead the city’s job to make it safe for them to walk, no matter what.

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“It’s not rocket science. It is quite easy,” Belin said. “The problem is to get political support for these sorts of things … you need very strong political leadership to make these things happen.”

In Toronto, that will may or may not exist, depending on who you ask.

Browne says the city’s plan is to jump all in. “This is a fundamental shift in the way transportation services is going to be delivering safety,” he said. “We are taking a much more strategic approach as opposed to opportunistic, and that’s huge.”

Browne said he believes the plan can succeed. “It’s something we really have to strive to achieve … we have everything in place we need to deliver on this.”

Browne said the plan is data-driven and will target the parts of the city that are most dangerous for the most vulnerable road users. Torontonians’ ability to get where they need to go quickly, he claims, will not conflict with making the city safer.

Maureen Coyle of Walk Toronto, a pedestrian advocacy group, doesn’t see it that way. “You can’t do both at the same time,” she said. “You can’t keep moving cars and move them faster and ‘more efficiently’ without those vehicles driving into people on a regular basis.”

She said making such a big change might not be a popular move politically across the board. “But it’s particularly hard to argue when the number of serious injuries goes down,” she said, pointing to New York’s experience after adopting Vision Zero.

Though she doesn’t doubt its intentions, Coyle has been vocal about her view that the city’s financial commitment to the plan is not bold enough. While the city does intend to lower speed limits in targeted areas, it’s an approach Coyle thinks should be more widespread. Cities such as New York and, more recently, Boston have agreed to lower default city speeds, which Toronto is opting to do only in select areas.

In Canada, Edmonton claims to be the country’s first major city to adopt Vision Zero. It did so in 2015.

Asked about whether adopting this approach clashes with Toronto’s strong car culture, Gerry Shimko, executive director of Edmonton’s office of traffic safety, said, “Well, we ask the fundamental question: how many people should die in your family as a result of a motor vehicle collision? And we’ve yet to meet anyone that says anything other than zero.”

Back in Toronto, there’s still a gift for Madeleine in her mother’s kitchen. Feeling proud of how well her daughter had been doing in school, Burnat attempted to get everything on her daughter’s birthday and Christmas list.

When she spoke with the Star, Burnat had the sock her daughter was wearing when she died tucked inside her pocket. Burnat picked it up from the side of the road that night.

“I really had a good, good girl,” Burnat said. “I did.”

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