'A life is worth more than a dime': Saskatoon council votes to add safety measures at site of fatal crash

After a long and sometimes emotional discussion at City Hall, Saskatoon city council voted to add safety upgrades at one of the city's busiest intersections.

"In what world can a report that says 'Do nothing right now' be accepted?" Jim Arnold asked council on Wednesday, speaking for the Saskatoon Cycles advocacy group.

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Arnold was the first of four people to speak to council about a report on the findings from a safety audit at the intersection of College Drive and Wiggins Avenue. It was commissioned after cyclist Natasha Fox, 33, was killed in a May 2023 collision with a concrete truck while riding her bike ahead of her two young children.

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City staff advised council to adopt 11 of 14 recommendations from the audit, none of which included specific cycling infrastructure at the intersection, except widening of a shared-use pathway on the north side of College Avenue.

Addressing the three audit recommendations city staff did not support, Arnold said Saskatoon Cycles "gets it" that city staff can't speed up a planned study on ideal pedestrian and cycling routes into the University of Saskatchewan campus.

The group also understands concerns about the impact on Saskatoon Transit of creating a one-way street northbound on Wiggins Avenue and adding a fully protected bike lane for one block south of College Drive, Arnold said.

He urged council to go against city staff's advice and adopt an audit recommendation to eliminate right turns at red lights on Wiggins heading west, add a painted bike lane and install a bike box — a painted area for cyclists to wait at the light in front of cars.

City transportation director Jay Magus told council the staff don't view the bike box option as appropriate for an intersection as busy as Wiggins and College.

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Magus said traffic volumes would warrant fully protected bike lanes for northbound and southbound cyclists on Wiggins. He said this is a costly solution, and likely to take a long time as it would require widening the roadway.

City staff prefer a longer-term solution focusing on nearby Munroe Avenue, which has lower traffic volume and could safely be made into an ideal cycling route at a lower cost, Magus said.

He called the bike box and turning restriction option a "sub-standard" way of dealing with the intersection, saying he couldn't professionally recommend it due to the potential it could create an "illusion of safety" for road users.

Magus noted painted lines wouldn't be visible in winter and raised concerns about a right turn restriction creating confusion and a lack of compliance.

Asked why his views are at odds with those of equally qualified professionals who did the audit, Magus said he and his team considered a wider area as they analyzed the "concepts" provided by the audit report authors in coming up with advice on which audit recommendations to pursue further.

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The cost of the option including the bike box and turning restriction was estimated at around $25,000.

Tod Fox, Natasha's husband, told council this amounts to about nine cents from every resident of Saskatoon.

"Can you commit to investing less than a dime for every person who calls this city home?" Fox asked of council, calling it a small investment with the potential to save a life.

"If I know anything about this community, we'd all agree a life is worth more than a dime," he added.

Council voted to include the bike box and right turn restriction.

Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill moved the motion to include the additional measures. He rejected the idea these would create an "illusion of safety," pointing to a right turn on red restriction used at the intersection of 33rd Street and Avenue D.

Hill called it "a good thing" if Munroe and Wiggins eventually get appropriate treatment for cyclists, saying one shouldn't preclude the other.

"This is the highest-use intersection (for cyclists), and it's not working," Mayor Charlie Clark said, echoing calls for something to be done at the intersection, which is also Saskatoon's most-used by pedestrians.

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Council voted unanimously to proceed on the staff-supported recommendations from the audit.

Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer voted against adding the bike box and restricted turn option. He previously opposed overriding the advice of city staff at committee.

Council went on to pass motions to get further reporting on longer-term solutions for the intersection, as well as the potential for a pilot project on improving the operator sight lines in the city's fleet of vehicles, in a nod to Fox's advocacy for higher levels of government to enact tougher regulations on the sight lines required for operators of oversize vehicles.

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