Poll shows overwhelming concern for road safety and support for lanes

Road safety advocates pose in the cold

 Sean Marshall from Walk Toronto, left, Keagan Gartz, Executive Director of Cycle Toronto, Gideon Forman from the David Suzuki Foundation and Jessica Spieker from Friends & Families for Safe Streets

Poll shows overwhelming concern for road safety and support for lanes 

An Ekos survey of 809 Toronto residents released last week confirms that nearly 9 out of 10 Torontonians are concerned about road safety while almost 8 out of 10 support building protected bike lanes.  What’s more, this is true regardless of where in the city people live or how they get around. 

Some street-by-street highlights from the survey also include:

  • 83% endorse Transform Yonge in North York which would turn a six lane highway into a vibrant main street with more space for people walking, biking and shopping along the stretch
  • 72% support the Yonge Tomorrow project which would prioritize car-free space for people walking, biking and wheeling downtown
  • 2 out of 3 people support building protected bike lanes on Danforth, even if it means the loss of some street parking

This broad support for improving Toronto’s roads shows that we are at a turning point. The City can’t avoid the loud and clear voices from across Toronto calling for roads that are friendly to people on foot, bike, and every other form of transportation. We will keep pushing until Toronto becomes the city it wants to be.

We spoke to CBC about these numbers last week along with The David Suzuki Foundation, Walk Toronto, and Friends & Families for Safe Streets. Check out the article here: Majority believes Toronto's not doing enough to make streets safer, survey suggests