Calgary will see a host of new pedestrian safety measures after councillors approved an amendment to add $7.5 million to Vision Zero initiatives.

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson cited the 14 pedestrian deaths thus far in 2025 as a major driver behind the amendment, which came forward on city council’s eighth day of 2026 budget deliberations.

Calgary had surpassed a 10-year high for fatal collisions in the city by mid-November, prompting a campaign from the Calgary Police Service and the City of Calgary to raise awareness of safer, more attentive driving overall.

“This motion, as presented, is starting to tackle the safety of our most vulnerable users on the road network. Our folks who are not sitting in a one ton vehicle, our folks who are just trying to walk around in their neighbourhoods, our kids who are trying to get to school,” said Atkinson.

“This is an investment in making sure that walkability in our neighbourhoods and pedestrian safety is at the forefront.”

City administration provided councillors a briefing note that outlined some of the higher pedestrian conflict areas. They happen all over the city, and as such, city administration suggested a variety of upgrades across Calgary. Briefing note included below.

Mobility director Troy McLeod said that 57 per cent of the incidents happened on arterial roads, just over 30 per cent on collector roads and around 11 per cent on residential roadways.

“What we’re wanting to do is, because of that sizeable number for arterials, is focus on some of these major corridors of fatal collisions that we’re seeing across the last 10 years or so, and targeting those corridors as well as intersections,” he said.

“So yes, they do occur across the city. What we’re wanting to do is focus on the ones that have higher frequency and address those first.”

Improvements drive incidents down: McLeod

McLeod explained that simple fixes in these locations can have a significant impact on pedestrian incidents. He said that activated crossing can reduce conflicts by 20 to 50 per cent, pedestrian refuge islands by 30 to 50 per cent, ladder crosswalks between 25 to 40 per cent and leading pedestrian intervals reduce by 20 to 40 per cent.

“I won’t go on, but it does show you that some of these ones that we’ve introduced in the system are effective, but not 100 per cent,” he said.

“And so again, we need to be careful of how much we invest versus how much we rely on other means of education and enforcement. Then, it’s a shared responsibility of both drivers and pedestrians on our network.”

McLeod said that this additional funding would allow the City of Calgary to literally double the amount of improvements made around the city.

That sat well with Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos, who also appreciated that the mobility unit kept such tidy statistics.

“What I’m pleased with is your performance and monitoring metrics, KPIs and things that will come back. Unfortunately, a reduction will still be deaths on the streets. However, if we can look people in the eye and say, hey, 30 went to 21, to 10 and our goal being zero, but at least there’s something least there’s something there,” he said.

“We’re making progress, and they’re awful metrics to keep, but I’m glad that we’ll have it to show that what we’re doing is helping.”

Outside council chambers, Coun. Atkinson said this is fundamental responsibility for the City.

“Not having pedestrians die on our streets is critically important on the whole,” he said.

“Putting investments into how folks move around in our city, I think, is actually one of the biggest roles of city hall. We want people to move around safely.”

The money for the Vision Zero improvements will come from the city’s Fiscal Stability Reserve.