Police enforcement project highlights pedestrian safety

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 2, 2025.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Sgt. Daniel Lomness of the Lethbridge Police Traffic Response Unit, speaks to reporters about the month-long pedestrian safety traffic enforcement project that took place in March during a press conference Tuesday at the police station.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge police have wrapped up a month-long pedestrian safety traffic enforcement project that saw officers engage with nearly 300 parents and students, issue 16 tickets, and deliver numerous verbal and written warnings.

Sgt. Daniel Lomness of the Lethbridge Police Traffic Response Unit, says pedestrian safety is the responsibility of both drivers and pedestrians while crossing the street.

The pedestrian safety traffic enforcement project was launched as a response to the growing number of pedestrian collision and concerns about pedestrian safety near local schools and playgrounds in the city.

“Everyone on the road, motorists as well as pedestrians, need to be paying attention to their surroundings and giving themselves the best advantage to be safe,” says Lomness.

As an example, pedestrians should not have their hoods up or wear headphones while crossing, and ensure they make eye contact with drivers if they are stopping before crossing the street. It’s even advisable to wave to drivers and wait for them to acknowledge they’re being seen.

“Drivers, same thing,” says Lomness. “Ensure they are paying attention to surroundings, that they are not distracted and if there is weather or any other environmental conditions, adapt your driving to that.”

If there is snow on the ground, people should drive slower to avoid sliding through intersections; if it’s sunny, they might have to drive slower in certain areas. And if there are blind corners, they have to pay attention and make turns more carefully to compensate for the lack of visibility.

Lethbridge Police and Community Peace Officers partnered with Alberta Sheriffs to address key traffic safety issues during the project, including inattention, speeding, illegal U-turns, crosswalk obstructions and vehicles parked too close to intersections.

“We were out there trying to educate parents, students, and anybody around on how to drive safely, cross the road safely,” says Lomness. “Making sure kids are looking left, looking right, looking ahead of them and behind them before crossing.”

Their main focus was on was making sure pedestrians were seen before crossing the road and that vehicles were stopped before crossing.

“Cellphones are a huge risk, not only while driving through crosswalks and in those areas, but in general while driving,” Lomness points out. “Speeding in school zones and playground zones are obviously a high risk as well.”

Lomness says LPS will continue to work with the City of Lethbridge to review information about collisions, to make decisions on ways to address them, such as adding infrastructure to an intersection or changing a specific area to a playground zone if necessary.

Ahmed Ali, manager of transportation engineering in charge of road safety with the City of Lethbridge, says right now his department is working on more than 20 intersections across the city to improve safety based on collision reports.

“In-house, we get complaints from public that tells us where the problems are, then we do investigations and we come up with smaller solutions like re-striping the road, putting reflector stripes,” says Ali.

They recently acquired 20 speed feedback signs to be added to the five currently installed around the city, letting drivers know what their speed is upon approaching the sign.

Ali says there’s a process to figuring out what kind of crosswalk devices are best in certain areas of the city. Basic intersections are uncontrolled because vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic is low.

“But it’s still an intersection,” he points out, “and the Alberta Traffic safety act requires drivers to stop for pedestrians. Pedestrians always have the right of way at intersections.”

Next are crosswalks, with markings and a sign in the ground. As the volume of traffic, both vehicles and pedestrians, increases, so does the level of crosswalk.

Ali says some examples include zebra crossings, followed by crosswalks that have rapid flashing beacons, which can be found in the vast majority of school pedestrian crossings in the city.