Dangerous roads and slow progress: Road safety becomes issue on Toronto campaign trail

Eleven-year-old Anton Dunbar isn't eligible to cast a ballot in Toronto's upcoming municipal election, but if he could, road safety would likely determine his vote.

"A lot of the places, there are no bike lanes and there's nowhere where we can feel safe," Anton told CBC Toronto.

"I think [the next mayor] should make it a priority to have bike lanes and safe streets for kids and everybody."

Anton and his mother spoke to CBC at the Light Up Toronto for Safe Streets rally on Sunday, where more than 100 people walked and cycled from Ramsden Park in Rosedale to Yonge-Dundas Square. 

The day before, hundreds of cyclists took to Toronto streets to protest against the shutdown of ActiveTO and renew calls for safer streets.

With voting day approaching on Oct. 24, cyclists, pedestrians and advocates are pushing to make road safety a central election issue, arguing more action and resources are needed to make streets safer for all residents. 

In 2016, the City of Toronto introduced its Vision Zero strategy with the goal of reducing traffic-related deaths and serious injuries to zero after 78 people died in traffic accidents the previous year.

The Vision Zero initiative originated in Sweden in 1997, where it's been credited with reducing cyclist and pedestrian deaths from 202 in 1990 to 43 in 2020.

In Toronto, the program has seen more than 1,100 stretches of roadway designated as community, school or senior safety zones and more than 1,000 advance walk signals for pedestrians installed at crosswalks.

It's also prompted the redesign and rebuilding of intersections; the construction of new mid-block intersections; and the installation of hundreds of photo radar and red-light cameras meant to catch speeding drivers and those who run red lights, among other measures.

The city has also built 65 km of new cycle tracks, bike lanes, multi-use trails and neighbourhood routes from 2019 to 2021, according to a 2021 staff report.

But progress on the main goal of reducing deaths and injuries has been slow.

While the number of people seriously injured in traffic collisions has declined annually since 2018, the number of people killed each year remains high.

Forty-four people, including 21 pedestrians, seven motorcyclists and one cyclist, have died and 120 people have been seriously injured on Toronto streets so far this year, according to the city's Vision Zero dashboard. That puts the city on track to reach last year's count of 60 deaths.