CARSP Conference 2025: Reflections from our Safety Network Newsletter Team Members
This year, speakers at the 2025 CARSP Conference in Quebec City discussed important road safety topics such as Vision Zero, speed management, and vulnerable road user safety. For me, what stood out was Ian Lockwood’s keynote speech, which emphasized the importance of empathy, equity, and ethics to address hostile streets as a collective endeavor. How the built environment is designed will determine how people travel, and this presentation showed examples of how modifying desolate urban areas using complete street guidelines increases sustainable transportation while reducing motor vehicle dependency. Mr. Lockwood explained how investment also follows complete street modifications due to the increase in pedestrian and micromobility traffic.
Mr. Lockwood provided examples of rejuvenated areas in the USA, showing how changing the built environment in this way truly contributes to sustainability and road safety goals. He reinforced the need for a change in transportation culture, and the complete streets approach supports this shift.
Overall, I found Mr. Lockwood’s speech inspiring and uplifting. A consistent argument against making more space for pedestrians and wheelers is that it will negatively impact businesses – what Mr. Lockwood shared contradicts this claim, which is hopeful for the future of road safety in Canada and beyond!
- Emily McCullogh, PhD
CARSP 2025 was held in the beautiful city of Quebec City, Quebec. As a pedestrian exploring the streets of Old Quebec, I noticed how steep many of the roads were. This made me reflect on the kinds of infrastructure adaptations the city may have implemented to support individuals with accessibility needs. I also found the traffic lights interesting – vehicle traffic seemed to be prioritized, and pedestrian signals often took a while to activate.
At the conference, there was a noticeable increase in French-speaking attendees, likely due to the location. I truly appreciated their presence, as well as the live translation tools provided at the event, which helped bridge the language gap for non-bilingual participants.
Two sessions that particularly stood out to me were the 'Speed Management' and 'Bigger Vehicles, Bigger Risks' panels. In the Speed Management panel, it was fascinating to hear how different municipalities approach speeding. Many focus on protecting vulnerable road users by targeting areas like school zones and high pedestrian traffic corridors. As someone working in the public sector, I was especially drawn to Alex Epstein’s presentation on Intelligent Speed Assistance and findings from their NYC Pilot Project. It closely aligns with methods we use in government to address speeding through in-vehicle technology. The concept of time-over-distance enforcement was also new to me and piqued my interest.
The Bigger Vehicles, Bigger Risks panel was equally thought-provoking. The trend toward larger consumer vehicles raises significant concerns about pedestrian safety. Many drivers may not realize that bigger vehicles come with larger blind spots and can cause more severe harm to vulnerable road users – even at lower speeds – compared to smaller vehicles.
Overall, the conference was an excellent experience. It was great to reconnect with familiar faces and meet new people who are equally passionate about improving road safety.
- Caroll Lau (Transport Canada)
*Note: This reflection is based on personal experiences and does not reflect the official opinions of Transport Canada.