Cars wait at an intersection in Deux-Montagnes, Que., with a sign prohibiting right turns at a red light, on Nov. 10.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Montreal is the only city in North America with a blanket ban on drivers making right turns at red lights.
But as pedestrian and cyclist deaths are on the rise, a growing number of jurisdictions are considering having drivers pause a little longer at intersections in a bid to slow the carnage.
It’s just one small part of Vision Zero, a global initiative to achieve zero fatalities or serious injuries on roads. Founded in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has sharply reduced deaths among car drivers and passengers, cyclists and pedestrians, and is now gaining traction in North America. In New York, right turns on red are severely restricted in the five boroughs.
It’s no wonder. There were more than 7,500 pedestrian deaths in the U.S. last year, the highest number since 1981. Canada records about 300 pedestrian deaths annually.
Washington, D.C., will ban right turns on red effective 2025; Chicago’s new mayor has promised to do the same; Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver are all considering the move.
There’s a lot of chatter in Canadian cities too, but not much action. For example, the city of North Vancouver, which wants to install red-light and speed cameras, has also directed city staff to report back on the pros and cons of banning right turns on red.
What is catching on is banning right turns on red at select intersections, usually in city centres with high volumes of pedestrians, as Toronto and Hamilton have done.
No right turns on red was once the norm (and remains so in Europe), but the rules gradually loosened in North America as the car became king. During the 1970s energy crisis, the interdiction was largely removed, ostensibly because cars idling for a few extra seconds at intersections wasted precious fuel.
Pro-car groups like the National Motorists’ Association still use the argument that preventing right turns on red is bad for the environment, because it slows traffic and increases idling. They also argue that it slows public transit and delays package delivery. God forbid, anyone would wait a few extra seconds for an Amazon package.
However, a Quebec study found the right-turn ban increased fuel consumption by about three litres annually (a negligible amount) and added about one minute to an average driver’s day.
If people are really worried about the environment, climate change, and the efficiency of public transit, they shouldn’t clog the roads by driving around so much, especially in gigantic pickups and SUVs.
The real unknown is if, or how much, a ban on right turns on red would increase the safety of pedestrians. There are a lot of factors at play, including infrastructure, weather, driver behaviour, and enforcement.
About one in five pedestrian deaths occur at intersections. But how many are specifically owing to a vehicle turning right on red is unclear: A Toronto study found it was 2 per cent; data from Seattle say 9 per cent.
An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study includes this chilling statistic: If you are struck by a vehicle turning right, the odds of death are 89 per cent higher if it’s a pickup, and 63 per cent higher if it’s an SUV.
Deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. Many more pedestrians are injured in collisions. This often occurs because drivers are distracted, or rushing.
Where right turns on red are permitted, drivers often focus on oncoming traffic on their left, and pay little attention to pedestrians and cyclists. When right turns on red are banned, it concentrates the entire volume of right-turning vehicles on the green light, and that can lead to more aggressive driving while pedestrians are crossing.
Parachute, a Canadian injury prevention charity, says a clear right-turn policy reduces conflict between pedestrians and drivers, and benefits children and those with mobility issues in particular.
But, of course, for a policy to be effective there needs to be enforcement, and enforcing traffic rules to protect pedestrians doesn’t seem very high on the list of police priorities.
Many motorists view stop signs and red lights as mere suggestions, and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that aggressive scofflaw behaviours have become more commonplace since the pandemic tore into the social fabric.
The pandemic also sent far more people into the streets, on foot and on two wheels, and we need to do a better job protecting them. Crossing a street should not be a death-defying exercise, but it too often is for pedestrians.
Banning right turns on red would certainly be a small step forward for the growing legions of walkers and bikers.
André Picard