This mystery “Canadian City” is Calgary. Every headline must be a riddle these days.

You can say it is Calgary. It is a massive problem. There was a 17 year old on a skateboard who was recently hit and killed by a 79 year old lady. This is at least the third time in less than a year that someone has been hit in a crosswalk by an older woman. One of the cases someone was hit by two older women back to back and killed. I wish I was joking, but that actually happened.

I walk in Calgary to work every day and I can confirm that it is dangerous. My walk is only 15 mins, but I had so many close calls that I had to buy a construction vest and a headlamp for when I am walking at night. Some people will yell at me when my headlamp shines on them, but at least they see me and stop.

We need better lighting, we need more frequent reviews of peoples licences, (Normally people get a licence when they are 17 and they are never reviewed again), we need harsher punishments for people who drive dangerously (if you hit someone in a crosswalk, it should be a significant licence suspension, 6 months to 1 year), and we need more investment in protected bike lanes and pedestrian over/underpasses so you don’t need to always risk getting hit to just cross the street. Too many people in Calgary are entilted drivers and act like they have a right to drive as fast as they want.

More people will die and I could very well still be one of them despite the precautions I take. I would also argue that 1 million won’t even scratch the surface of addressing how widespread of a problem this is in the city. That one guy who was hit and killed by the two older ladies and died was at a crosswalk that is unlit and was frequently complained about for being unsafe, but the city said it was too expensive to put in a light system. People have still been hit in lit crosswalks, but the fact that the city has a price where they won’t prioritize pedestrians lives is apparant.

If a major city has to beg for one million dollars to save lives, then there’s a major problem going on here.

The same city would have no problem spending tens of millions on road widening or some other car-centric bullshit “improvement”.

Some of the road project costs I see for my municipality would easily cover the next 15 years of active transportation infrastructure. Yet, we throw it away to single, useless projects designed only for the convenience of motorists.

Totally unsurprising. Calgary is a car-centric urban sprawl of the worst sort. Entire urban districts are completely cut off and surrounded by either large stroads or actual highways. There are some houses near my grandparents place that literally live on a highway exit ramp. My sister came with us once while we were visiting and I took her for a drive around the city - she was in awe at how poorly planned the city is, and we are both from Vancouver which is a circus even on the best days.

$1mil isn’t even going to make a dent in this. Not even make a scratch. It won’t even pay for 1/8th of the initial investigation to determine where to best place the scratch. Calgary has sunk billions into horrible urban planning decisions and they continue to do so every day. That entire city is one giant web of stroads.

I love here and This is why I’m afraid to drive. IA car accident I can handle, but a hitting a person…