Please choose between the following three options:
Skip to main menu Skip to site search Continue to current page menu and content
Main page content begins here
Safe crossings are essential to community connectivity, safety, and livability. Each year, funds from the Traffic Safety Automated Enforcement Reserve (TSAER) are used to make crossings safer through the Safe Crossings Program as a key action in the Safe Mobility Strategy 2021-2025.
Since Vision Zero was adopted in 2015, more than 375 crossings have been upgraded to support safer travel for all.
The Safe Crossings program is expanding! Approximately 400 crossing locations will be upgraded over the next four years, with 100 projects confirmed for 2023.
View the status of each planned and completed project by visiting the Safe Crossings Dashboard or the Safe Streets Map.
Please call 311 to report your experience or concerns about unsafe crossings.
There are a number of programs available that you might be interested in to help make streets, and crossings, safer! Visit Get Involved for more information.
To explore in depth information about the Safe Crossings Program, visit the Safe Crossings Dashboard. If you’re curious about finding out about what’s been improved and what’s planned around you, explore the Safe Streets Map.
Safe Crossings Program projects are funded through the Traffic Safety Automated Enforcement Reserve, which reinvests automated enforcement revenue in safe and livable streets improvements.
Approximate cost of materials and installation for various countermeasures:
Curb extensions, two-stage crossings, raised crosswalks, and signal changes vary in cost from location to location based on the amount of materials, signage requirements, and design considerations.
Aggressive driving behaviours such as speeding, following and passing too closely, and distracted driving are top safety concerns to Edmontonians.
Be aware, patient, predictable, and kind to make roads safer for everyone.
Learn more at Side by Side.
Most often, these signals are on busy roads with many other traffic lights that are coordinated with one another. These traffic lights have specific timing cycles that people intending to cross will have to wait through before their light changes allowing them to proceed. This will happen most often during peak times.
Using a GBA+ lens, the Safe Crossings Program uses an evidence based prioritization process to provide equitable access to safety. This is important because based on findings in the Safe Mobility Strategy, the City does not hear from residents in communities that experience the most crashes.
Crossing locations are carefully considered for upgrade, including community needs and feedback, equitable safety, future growth and existing infrastructure.
Seeking to account for residents’ needs so that the City can increase access to community gathering locations and essential services (such as schools, playgrounds, senior centres and hospitals).
This is done by noting bus stop locations, bus ridership, and census data that reflects the percentage of people who do not use a personal vehicle as their primary mode of transportation.
Considering how people are currently using the crossing and factors which impact their experience by seeking to understand the number of people walking, cycling, driving, and using mobility aids, crash history, proximity to other safe crossing locations, and roadway characteristics, such as the number of lanes.
Factoring in modelling and plans from the City Plan that identifies a predicted increase in population by 2030 and primary and secondary corridors to support safe streets and livable communities as we grow.
Reflecting on what we’ve heard from Edmontonians through public inquiries and public engagement.
The tool used for each crossing upgrade is carefully selected. These tools provide protection for people walking, cycling, or rolling, encourage slower speeds, and provide drivers with more reaction time and visibility so all road users can feel safe.
The number of vehicles, number of lanes of traffic people need to cross, presence of a median, speed limit, and proximity to existing safe crossing tools, influence what kind of added measure will be selected. The City often goes above and beyond national safety guidelines in how crossings are upgraded to support our progress toward our goal of Vision Zero.
These aren’t the only tools used in the City when it comes to crossings. Visit Pedestrian Crossings to learn about other types of crosswalks.
Tools used to upgrade and improve the safety of crossings around Edmonton:
Rapid Flashing Beacons are two rapidly and alternately flashing lights mounted on pedestrian signs on both sides of a crossing.
People crossing the street can activate it with a button, and once the amber flashers are on, they can cross safely.
These are used in areas that have low to moderate traffic volumes and are typically found around schools.
Overhead amber flashers have two rapidly and alternatively flashing beacons suspended above the roadway.
The person crossing presses a button on their side to activate the lights and waits for traffic to slow down and stop so they can proceed safely. After people have crossed, vehicles may then continue to drive, even if the lights are still flashing.
These are installed on streets that have moderate or high traffic volumes.
Pedestrian-activated signals are traditional traffic lights with a pedestrian-activated button. The person crossing presses the button and waits for the visual light signal or the audible signal before crossing.
For drivers, this is like any other traffic light where they will have to wait for the light to turn green before proceeding.
These are installed on streets with high traffic volumes. They can be placed at crossings where there is not an intersection, or where an intersecting street has low traffic volumes and is controlled by a stop or yield sign.
Full signals are traffic lights that require drivers to come to a full stop using a red light at predetermined time intervals, so that people can cross the street. In some cases, they can still be pedestrian-activated.
These are installed at locations where there is a lot of traffic on side streets where vehicles have difficulty turning left or straight across an already busy street.
Curb extensions are places around intersections and crosswalks that are not part of an intersection.
By briefly narrowing the street, curb extensions slow and calm traffic. This also shortens the distance that people have to cross.
They also eliminate parking close to the crossing increasing safety and visibility of people crossing.
These specialized crossings allow pedestrians to cross the street in every direction, including diagonally, at the same time. This occurs in a dedicated phase where all vehicle movements are prohibited.
Pedestrian scrambles are installed on busy streets with high volumes of traffic and pedestrians.
Pedestrian scrambles enhance the walkability by making streets safer and more livable, which encourages more people to choose travel options that are active, healthy, and accessible.
This measure raises the roadway through the crosswalk to near sidewalk height.
They reduce vehicle speeds that allows for drivers’ to be more aware of people crossing the street.
This is used in busy signalized intersections often used by people crossing.
When a protected left-turn phase is activated, drivers turning left are only able to turn during a long green arrow phase. They also have a red light when people crossing have a walk signal.
This serves to eliminate conflict between left turning vehicles and people using the crosswalk as well as the risk of T-bone collisions.
These crossings allow people to pause between crossing each direction of traffic.
They can also narrow the street to calm and slow traffic and shorten crossing distance.
