The Local CTV News website has reported that a new citizens’ group has been formed in Old North London called ACTION or Advocates for Calmer Traffic in Old North. The STV news article mentioned that ACTION was formed after a crossing guard collision occurred in early June, 2025 at the Old North intersection of Colborne and St James Streets. Gorski Consulting had been conducting a traffic study at that location a couple of years earlier with respect to a new cycling lane that was being developed along Colborne.
In fact Gorski Consulting was not aware of the crossing guard collision until the city councillor for the area, Sam Trosow, reported the creation of a Go Fund account for the crossing guard. The incidence of collisions in London, Ontario is monitored by Gorski Consulting on a regular basis but our records do not show that a news media article had ever been posted about the collision. To this day we still do not know the precise date of the collision or any details about how it happened. During our video sessions at the site in 2022-23 we regularly observed a crossing guard in the background, sitting on a chair, and we assume this may have been the same person who was injured.
CTV News posted the address of the website of ACTION which can be found at “oldnorthcommunity.ca”. It was noted on the site that a survey of 236 local residents had been conducted to obtain information about the concerns they had about traffic safety in their neighbourhood. A rally had also been organized by ACTION for November 6th however sufficient public notification of it was not available except for the CTV News article of the same date.
ACTION summarized the results of the resident concerns as follows:
- Pervasive Speeding and Aggressive Driver Behaviour.
- Disregard for Stop Signs & Confusing Intersections.
- The Human Cost: Grave Danger to Pedestrians and Children.
ACTION also posted the results of the survey as follows:
In conclusion ACTION posted the following comments with respect to the residents’ concerns:
“The collective public feedback paints an unambiguous picture of a community that feels it is under siege from dangerous traffic conditions.”
“The residents’ concerns are not minor or isolated; they describe systemic issues of excessive speeding, hazardous intersections defined by driver non-compliance and confusing design, and a direct and constant threat to the safety of children, pedestrians, and all road users.”
“The submissions reflect a profound loss of confidence in the current state of neighbourhood safety in Old North and serve as an urgent plea for immediate short-term interventions and longer-term planning.”
Gorski Consulting Studies in Old North London
Over the years Gorski Consulting has been involved in a number of traffic safety studies in the vicinity of London and surrounding areas in Southern Ontario. As a road safety researcher with the University of Western Ontario Multi-Disciplinary Accident Research Team (1980-90) Zygmunt Gorski carried out hundreds of investigations in South-Western Ontario in full-filling the requirements of a Transport Canada contract dealing with preventing injuries in transportation collisions. In subsequent activities as a collision reconstructionist for a forensic engineering firm (1990-95) as well as through similar work conducted in the newly-created Gorski Consulting (1995 to present) roadway safety issues had to be addressed as part of a comprehensive analysis of how individual collisions occurred. These activities were mainly retained by insurance and legal clients for resolution of claims in civil litigation although a smaller number of files also dealt with criminal matters.
As part of those activities a variety of procedures were developed to extract information from the sites where collisions occurred. A prominent methodology that was used in many collision assessments was the set-up of multiple video cameras to document typical patterns of vehicle motions and speed as well as to document traffic volumes. As Zygmunt Gorski began to pass through toward retirement the use of video documentations continued as activities passed from client-paid cases toward non-paid interest in road safety as a whole. In recent years a number of non-paid studies have been processed and reported on the Gorski Consulting website.
Interest in the traffic of the Old North neighbourhood occurred initially as a result of one of the key road safety developments occurring from reactions to climate change and the need to transport persons by mass transit, cycling and walking. As a cycling enthusiast Zygmunt Gorski was interested in the safety of cyclists which was expected to become more prominent as more cyclists were likely to inhabit public road systems. A variety of cyclist documentations were engaged particularly commencing in 2018. A common complaint from cyclists was that they felt unsafe and that more infrastructure was needed in the way of protected cycling lanes. However it became clear as more data was gathered that cycling safety was not just a matter of creating more cycling lanes. Never-the-less in 2022 comments were made by some residents in the Old North community that a new, painted cycling lane along Colborne Street was insufficient and that a protected cycling lane was needed. This discussion caught our interest and we decided to proceed with an objective study.
It was somewhat of coincidence that the site where a study of the cycling path was chosen was near the intersection of Colborne Street and St James Street. Yet this was determined to be most appropriate because of the reduced influences of roadway features that could affect the assessment of the safety of the painted cycling path. So in 2022 Gorski Consulting commenced a number of video sessions at the site before the cycling lane was completed and then similar video was captured after the cycling lane was completed in 2023. Throughout this process a number of website articles were posted on the Gorski Consulting site describing the procedures and their results.
It did not become fully clear that residents in Old North were concerned about safety in their neighbourhood until the collision involving the crossing guard occurred reportedly in June of 2025. The city councillor representing the area, Sam Trosow, was aware of the research study of Gorski Consulting at the Colborne-St James site. As residents became more vocal Mr. Trosow arranged a meeting to discuss road safety in Old North. He invited a presentative of the London City Police, one from the City’s transportation department, a doctor from the City’s hospital emergency department and Zygmunt Gorski was also asked to participate. The meeting took place on July 23rd, 2025 at the parish hall of the St. John the Evangelist Church at 280 St. James Street in Old North. The meeting was well-attended as the hall was full by the time it commenced. Articles were posted on the Gorski Consulting website discussing preparatory facts about road safety and then a follow-up article was also posted after the meeting. While not of direct interest in the Gorski Consulting study, the motor vehicle traffic at the Colborne-St James intersection was captured in the background of video cameras in several of the video sessions. Thus additional analysis of that traffic was discussed. One of the findings from the Colborne-St James study was that drivers appeared to be confused about who had the right-of-way. This was likely because many intersections in the area were posted with 4-way stop signs and many drivers did not appear to be aware of the two-way stop signs at Colborne and St James. While it may appear odd that drivers were so non-observant this is just a reflection of the numerous previous instances at many other locations where objective data demonstrated that drivers, in general, do not pay attention to signage as much as roadway engineers expect them to.
Following the safety meeting, Mr. Trosow contacted Gorski Consulting with respect to concerns expressed by another group of residents from Old North with respect to traffic at the intersection of Wellington Street and Regent Street. A video survey of traffic conditions was conducted and this was compared to data provided to Mr. Trosow from the City’s transportation department. This intersection was serviced by 2-way stop signs however the traffic study showed that the stop sign should have been placed for Wellington Street rather than the busier roadway of Regent. Again it was noted that drivers appeared to be confused about who had the right-of-way. This became of greater concern at this intersection because Wellington Street was unusually wide because of the existence of a decorative centre median. Details about this issue were discussed in a subsequent article on the Gorski Consulting website in late August, 2025.
And in the fall of 2025 another group of residents contacted Gorski Consulting with respect to their concerns about traffic safety at the intersection of Richmond Street and Epworth Ave. Once again Gorski Consulting attended the location on four different dates where video documentation was carried out to explore the problems. Meetings with the group of residents were conducted and the preliminaries from the traffic study were posted in a Gorski Consulting website article.
ACTION And The Path Forward
Groups interested in the safety of their local communities can be the impetus for their road safety education. The unfortunate reality in the London region is that the essential objective data that is needed to properly evaluate that safety is not publicly available.
The Human, Vehicle & Environment
Understanding road safety must come from an initial recognition that it is influenced by diverse factors. A common acknowledgement in road safety research is that three broad areas of influence need to be considered; The human, the vehicle and the environment, or HVE. This acronym has been well-known in road safety research for decades. The details for these influences cannot be discussed here due to the extended verbiage that would lose the attention of almost all readers.
However, in considering the human, one must have an appreciation that our goal is to prevent, or lessen, the severity of injury. So we must have some idea of how injuries are generated, what injuries are more important than others, and what those mechanisms are that cause those injuries.
With respect to the human we must also have some idea of the limits of human functioning as well as how humans typically function. Without this consideration we can develop unreasonable expectations driver behavior that will never correct a safety problem.
We must also recognize that roadways cannot be created just for the transportation of the super-humans of our species. In any normal distribution of a population fifty percent will always be below that mean. Thus humans with less than ideal eyesight, those with disabilities that lessen their travel speed, humans that are too old or too young, must all be considered. After decades of political denial and refusal to help the financially disadvantaged and shutting down of mental health institutions a permanent population of unhoused persons now roam certain neighbourhoods of London. These persons become safety problems when they mingle in traffic while typical methods of communication and education fail to penetrate their need to be aware when their safety is jeopardized. These too cannot be ignored in any road safety plans.
With respect to the vehicle, we must understand the basic idea that we are becoming transported in a wider variety of implements. While decades earlier must persons were transported in private, light-duty passenger vehicles, the present, and future means that we will see persons being transported on a variety bicycles, e-bikes, e-scooters and creations that are yet to be introduced to the general market. More of us will likely be transported in some form of mass transit and this will mean the presence of more voluminous, more massive vehicles. And we will need to consider that technology is advancing rapidly such that the vehicles we see today will become controlled by modules and computers that may cause communication between vehicles as well as with the roadway.
And with respect to the environment we must understand that diverse influences such as weather play a role in road safety because it may influence matters like visibility of road signs, or the required intervals at which certain maintenance is required for the road system. The roadway itself can be extremely divergent. Not all roads are of the same character because of the date when they were created and what changes were progressively applied in attempts to match more current standards of design. Roadway width, slope, surface composition and a vast number of characteristics are controlled by various standards that are somewhat standardized across North America.
Often there is a balancing between efficient/capacity and road safety. A simple example is that a roadway that is clogged with traffic cannot efficiently distribute that traffic and this is a negative result. Yet because of the resultant low speed of vehicles safety may be improved because no one can drive fast enough to cause a collision of any large severity.
Conclusions Based On Unbiased Objective Data
So these are some of the issues related to HVE. Once it becomes appreciated that these influences exist the next step is to obtain objective data. What are the physical characteristics of the roadways in question? And how do those characteristics compare, or how are they different, from other roadways in other communities or jurisdictions. What is the traffic volume on the roadways and do those traffic counts actually tell you what you need to know? A traffic count on a lazy summer day in the centre of a larger community might be different from a count taken when some kind of seasonal event develops and traffic changes. What speeds are of concern and how do those speeds relate to the community’s safety? If speed data is available where was it taken and at what time, date or season? Is collision data available and how do those data compare to other communities of a similar character as the one in question. Many collisions are simply not registered in police data and not necessarily because they are trivial. Single vehicle loss-of-control events for example can be misrepresented in collision data as vehicles may leave a collision site if a vehicle is still drivable or if help summoned to tow a vehicle away before the incident is detected. How vulnerable are pedestrians, cyclists and similar groups on and adjacent to the roadways of the community? What are the important facts that need to be known in order to improve their level of safety? Access to objective data is what makes it possible to obtain answers to many of these questions.
Historically, the City of London Transportation Department and the City’s police have not be cooperative in disseminating the essential data necessary for citizens groups to understand how their roadways compare to the needs of other areas of the City. Clearly a lot of data is gathered and stored but never revealed. The CTV news article of November 6, 2025 mentioned that the City is “about to launch the Old North Traffic Management Study” and that they have hired a consultant to gather data and get feedback. However such actions rarely involved the sharing of details with local residents. Instead, general comments are often made along with conclusions that do little to educate and inform those citizens who need to know.
The members of the ACTION community group, as well as any and all citizen groups. need to press the City and police to be more cooperative in distributing the objective data that form the reasons for their actions or non-actions. Suggestions that providing such data to citizens’ groups will lead to a misunderstanding of it is not a reasonable rationale. In every matter of safety there have to be growing pains as persons unfamiliar with the issues are given instructions or conduct their own research on what is important. It gives insufficient respect to those who are exposed to such data for the first time to suggest that they will never comprehend its meaning.
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