Community tackles traffic safety

Crescentwood

Residents are taking road safety into their own hands after a string of incidents involving vehicles hitting pedestrians or cyclists along Osborne Street.

In early November, a 10-year-old boy was struck and injured at Osborne and Brandon Ave while riding his bike to school. Later that month, a 67-year-old woman was hit while walking across Osborne at Roslyn Road and died in hospital.

These incidents were preceded by at least two similar events in 2025 along Osborne, including a truck hitting a 14-year-old cyclist near Morley Avenue in June and a van hitting a 25-year-old pedestrian near Mulvey Avenue in March. In both of the latter cases, the impacted individuals sustained injuries and the drivers fled or attempted to flea the scenes.

A rally and a vigil were held in November in response to these incidents, with demonstrators calling on the city to make swift changes to improve traffic safety, particularly for young and vulnerable road users. Community organizers then brought residents together to discuss their road safety concerns in South Osborne.

“I think anyone who’s a pedestrian or cyclist has spots in their neighbourhoods that they know are, like, the not-good spots, the dangerous spots… so we thought it would be a good idea to come together with South Osborne folks to get some of those ideas from people and see how they might like to be involved in road safety efforts moving forward,” said Anna Weier, one of the organizers.

There have so far been two such community meetings, both of which were well-attended and have helped identify potential solutions and galvanized residents into action.

One such resident is Em Curry, mother of the teen cyclist who was struck near Morley. Curry has directly engaged Churchill High School to put a crossing guard at Osborne and Brandon.

“People are just like zooming through, turning onto Osborne from Brandon because they’ve dropped their kids off and then people are trying to turn left from the other side onto Osborne and then there’s people trying to turn onto Brandon to go to Churchill… it’s a very hairy corner,” Curry said, adding that she would also like to see a crossing guard at Osborne and Morley.

Residents are pushing for a traffic safety study of Osborne Street and have mapped out other traffic safety issues in the neighbourhood, Weier said.

The next community meeting hasn’t yet been scheduled, but will likely be in February.