Safe Streets & Public Spaces for All

Everyone should feel safe in their city, but too many Vancouverites feel less safe after four years of ABC. Kids don’t feel safe riding a bike to school, women and gender-diverse folks don’t feel safe walking home at night, and seniors don’t feel safe getting to and from appointments.

OneCity will make our streets and public spaces feel safer, regardless of who you are, where you’re going, or how you get there. It involves three elements of safety: crime and policing, safe public spaces, and safe mobility.

Crime and policing 

OneCity will move to enact a Progressive Public Safety framework that works with all the available tools with the following principles:

• Housing First – OneCity will support people to get off the streets and into safe and appropriate housing so they can get jobs and re-integrate with their communities. Housing costs less than hospitals, jails, or shelters, and improves outcomes more than any other solution. 

• Crisis response through CRCL teams – OneCity will address diverse challenges across the city with the teams that are best suited to address them: social workers, community intervention staff, and support hubs that can address problems where police aren’t required, so that police can focus their resources on organized and major crimes.

• Integrate Restorative Justice – OneCity will stop the expensive “catch-and-release” approach that pushes people further into poverty by leveraging proven, independently-evaluated, community-led programs that reduce re-offending.

• Reduce drug-related crime and harm  – OneCity will expand treatment and recovery programs and facilities, crisis response, and public education about substance use. We will also deepen partnerships and stabilize community organizations that are meaningfully improving community outcomes and providing support services.

• Organizational and Service Review of VPD – OneCity will hold the Vancouver Police Department to the same standard as every other public service by ensuring that funding is transparently reviewed, accounted for, and effectively allocated. 

• Protect Survivor Safety  – OneCity will create a Survivor Safety Program to protect survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) with low-barrier frontline services, and community-led roundtables to identify gaps and improve outcomes so no one falls through the cracks.

Safe public spaces

OneCity will provide clear rules, common sense regulations, and a compassionate approach to safety in public spaces:

• ReLight Vancouver – OneCity will make people feel safe getting home at night with well-lit streets, bus stops, parks, and pathways in every neighbourhood.

• Structured safety audit – OneCity will prioritize sightlines, adding mirrors on corners, and eliminating obstructed pathways so you can feel safe, seen, and sure of your surroundings.

• Shelter from the rain – OneCity will prohibit hostile architecture in public spaces and ensure bus stops don’t leave people out in the rain.

• Clean Streets and Public Waste Bins – OneCity will deliver reliable public garbage access, expand public recycling beyond downtown, and set a clear service standard so that you can easily dispose of trash and enjoy clean, accessible spaces citywide.

• Ban Smart Glasses in Public Spaces – OneCity will establish notification requirements for sensitive business classes, launch a voluntary “privacy first” certification, and update bylaws to ban wearable recording devices in pools, washrooms, and other public spaces. 

• Charge and Ride Safe – OneCity will expand access to secure charging facilities for active transport, and crack down on the sale and rental of uncertified or modified e-bike batteries that cause preventable fires and injuries.

Safe Mobility

Vehicle crashes are the greatest source of preventable injury and death in Vancouver, and traffic-related fatalities have skyrocketed under ABC, who have taken no meaningful steps to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, seniors, and schoolchildren. OneCity will fix that:

• Build a connected walking and cycling network – OneCity will ensure that you can make your whole trip safely without a car, regardless of where you start and end. 

• Prioritize mobility for all – OneCity will direct initial investments to the areas furthest behind, and publish mobility data by neighbourhood so Vancouverites can see exactly where investment is going and where it isn't.

• Safe Speeds Plan – OneCity will reduce speed limits on busy shopping streets, school and park frontages, and high-injury corridors so that cars can stop before they hurt someone.

• Vision Zero Rapid Response Fund – OneCity will dedicate funding to proactively identify and immediately address street safety issues according to historical data and evidence.

What this means for you:

The OneCity team will take every aspect of public safety seriously, not just policing. You should feel safe from the Downtown Eastside to Kerrisdale to Renfrew, from early morning to late at night. Whether you’re walking, biking, or driving, you should feel protected from preventable harm. Your city will use every available tool to address poverty- and drug-related crime and disorder, so that you can be better protected from organized and major crimes.