On Feb 18th, I had the opportunity to speak with Ottawa Now host Kristy Cameron about Ottawa’s proposed decision to not consider a blanket ban on RTOR even only in the downtown core.
You can listen to the full segment from Feb 18, starting at 19:24 of Hour 1: Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron – Sound Bites, and I’ve embedded the 6.5 minute interview above.
In short, I think a blanket ban of right turns on red lights would be a meaningful step the city could take to reduce the risk of injury and death to cyclists and pedestrians. The main issue stopping it from moving forward is a practical one, not an ideological one, and I don’t think that is a good reason not to move forward with such an important shift in safety considerations for vulnerable road users.
My main thought on this policy isn’t so much about whether this should be a legal turn or not, it’s about the actual issue that causes frustration if you cannot make right turns when the light is red. The biggest problem is actually light timings not actually reflected real traffic volumes. If you never have to sit at a red light waiting to turn right with no cross traffic, it literally doesn’t matter what the law is.
There’s also the fact that our build road environment was all completed with legal right hand turns, and so given real world constraints there are almost certainly intersections where traffic backups could become a real issue. Again, I think these issues could easily be solved and would be worth the effort anyways, but it’s not as simple as changing the rule in isolation. Changing light timings and of course enforcing existing traffic laws more should absolutely be step 1.
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