Le français viendra sous peu.
Recently an inquiry about the safety of allowing right turns on red (RTOR) was brought forward to the Ottawa Public Works and Infrastructure Committee by Councillor Ariel Troster. Ottawa city staff responded to this by claiming that RTOR is in fact safer for pedestrians. But could this possibly be true? A walk around any municipality that permits RTOR would suggest otherwise. We dug into the data.
Source: Listgarten, 2022
So what are the issues with RTOR? There are a few main ways that drivers handle RTOR. First, drivers will often roll past the designated stop bar and into the crosswalk, leaving vulnerable road users at risk of being hit. This is especially an issue for pedestrians or cyclists approaching from the right, as drivers are often looking to their left for oncoming traffic.
Source: Vision Zero Vancouver
Many studies have assessed the safety of RTOR. Toronto Public Health reported that 1,300 pedestrian injuries and fatalities were caused by RTOR between 2008 and 2012 occurred when drivers were turning right and pedestrians had the right of way and . Another study found that at intersections where RTOR is permitted, there is a much greater change of collisions occurring on all right turns - 60% with pedestrians and 100% with cyclists.
Source: Ecology Ottawa
A study in California found that 39,000 collisions and 217 deaths occurred during right turns In California between 2011 and 2022, and authors stated that this “lead us to conclude that RTOR movements are generally unsafe for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers and hinder the livability of streets for vulnerable road users.”
Finally, a 1981 study, performed shortly after RTOR was permitted in the United States, showed significant increases in collisions with both pedestrians and cyclists. The authors also noted that “The majority of these RTOR crashes involved a driver looking left for a gap in traffic and striking a pedestrian or bicyclist coming from the driver's right.”
Source: Presseur et. al. (1981)
Collecting data on near misses is difficult because they aren’t recorded. Because of this, most studies on RTOR safety don’t take these into account. As we’ll discuss more later, near misses can discourage modes of transportation like cycling and walking. According to a study by the CAA, around half of all cyclists and pedestrians have reported being involved in a ‘near miss’ on a right hand turn, though this study doesn’t distinguish between near misses on RTOR and on right turns in general.
There are several arguments that RTOR proponents deploy. One is that RTOR lowers vehicle emissions, since vehicles spend less time stopped at intersections. Studies show that emissions savings from adopting RTOR policies are marginal at best and depend on a number of factors such as shape of the intersection and pedestrian traffic. Furthermore, any emissions savings are falling as vehicles become more fuel efficient, with features such as start-stop systems that allow engines to turn off when stopped, and with the rollout of electric vehicles*.
This also fails to account for the fact that making spaces more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists encourages the use of vehicles. In the long run, any of the marginal emissions savings from allowing RTOR are more than counteracted through increased vehicle use by people opting to drive rather than walk or cycle.
In fact, one way to actually reduce vehicle emissions is to reduce space for vehicles in favour of other modes of transportation. Counterintuitively, this actually leads to reduced congestion, a phenomenon known as ‘traffic evaporation’. This can occur through multiple methods, such as people changing to other modes of transportation or travelling to alternative locations that are closer.
An argument made by Ottawa city staff is that banning RTOR will cause frustration for drivers, and they will not comply anyway. Leaving aside the serious problems with this argument—should we reward dangerous driver behaviour?—the data does not back this up. In San Francisco, when RTOR was banned on 50 intersections in a trial study, compliance rates were 92%. This also resulted in significant reductions in near misses and vehicles obstructing cross walks. This is an extremely problematic argument, as capitulating to people unwilling to follow laws in place to ensure the safety of vulnerable road users will lead to even more safety issues. No law will ever have complete compliance.
Ottawa City staff also argue that while banning RTOR can reduce collisions at one crosswalk, it may increase collisions in the adjacent crosswalk going in the other direction. City staff say this will lead to increased aggression at heavy traffic intersections because drivers will have to wait longer to turn. The issue with this argument is that, as opposed to a RTOR where the driver is looking left, drivers will be looking directly at pedestrians crossing in front of them. Furthermore, we need only look at the data which, as we saw earlier, clearly shows that allowing RTOR increases collisions with vulnerable road users.
Source: Wall Bike Cupertino
Finally, city staff raise the issue that banning RTOR will increase the incidence of ‘right-hook’ collisions - pictured below - in intersections with bike lanes. Their reasoning is that there will be more right turning vehicles on green lights, when cyclists are passing through the intersection. If city staff think this is the case, should the solution not be to design protected intersections to avoid this? The City of Ottawa has prepared a helpful video on this.
So what can we do about this? Ecology Ottawa has petition, with over 800 signatures, that provides several recommendations on how we should proceed:
- Prohibit vehicular turns (both right and left) on red lights at all intersections in the downtown area - from Highway 417 to the Ottawa River and from Bronson to Elgin.
- Collect data related to vehicular turns on red, both within downtown, to track improvements following such a prohibition, and outside downtown, to track the need for similar prohibitions elsewhere in Ottawa
- Prohibit vehicular turns on red by default in all protected intersections
If you want to help keep vulnerable road users safe, contact your councillor and let them know you support a ban on RTOR in downtown. Ecology Ottawa has prepared a guide to help you with this. Please also sign our petition.
* An additional consideration with EVs is increased severity of collisions due to their heavier weight caused by the battery.
