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“His coffee was still hot when he was hit. There are things like that that cross my mind,” she said.
“He had just left the house. He had just missed the bus. All of these things are burnt in your memory forever.”
Combden has been vocal about pedestrian and road safety ever since, and she spoke at one of the three recent public hearings city council has held on lowering neighbourhood speed limits.
Fox, just like the three pedestrians that have lost their lives on Calgary roads so far this year, was killed on a main street. But as city council appears poised to lower the speed limit on residential roads to 40 km/h Monday, Combden says she supports this step toward making Calgary safer.
On average, Calgary sees about 36,600 car collisions every year — that includes incidents between cars, as well as when pedestrians or cyclists are hit. About a quarter of those happen on neighbourhood streets and an average of 550 cause serious injury or death each year.
A Postmedia analysis in 2016 showed that, on average, one pedestrian in Calgary is hit by a car every day.
That adds up to thousands of people since the day Fox died.
“The numbers keep adding up and up and up, and we have not made very many changes in the city for making the streets safer for pedestrians,” Combden said.
“It’s not just Ryan. I think of everyone who has had to cross the road.”
Council’s road to a decision
Calgary’s most recent debate on speed limits began in 2018, when council initially agreed to “endorse” lowering the default, unposted limit on residential streets. The current default is 50 km/h.
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