In 2004, the City of Edmonton Mayor established a Mayor's Task Force on Traffic Safety to reduce the high prevalence of collisions on Edmonton roadways. A key recommendation of the Task Force was to create a municipal Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). The City of Edmonton OTS had the immediate benefit of working as a multi-disciplinary initiative based on strong support from the Edmonton Police Service and the Transportation Department. Both organizations, working collaboratively established a hybrid office that was formally created and staffed in late October 2006 with an Executive Director, with both organizations contributing financial support. This paper will focus on efforts by the OTS towards implementation of the Edmonton Traffic Safety Strategy and progress on initiatives based on priorities set within the Strategy. An evidence based approach was adopted to ensure that OTS could optimize best and leading practices in Traffic Safety. This also underscored the advantages of working with a senior department since the City of Edmonton Strategic management office became involved and provided resources to develop the Edmonton Traffic Safety Strategy (2006-2010), through a leading strategic planning process. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E220308.
Abstract