The present report focuses on public awareness and concerns about road safety. Road crashes are a major cause of death and disability in Canada. In 2004, the most recent year for which complete data are available, 2,730 people were killed in road crashes; a further 212,347 were injured, 17,533 of these being seriously injured (Transport Canada 2005). The annual costs of road crashes in terms of health care expenditures, property losses, and related costs exceed $25 billion. It has been a common refrain in the road safety community that these substantial human and economic losses are incongruous with the investment in road safety. And, it is further argued this disparity exists primarily because the public is not greatly concerned about road safety. It is further suggested that if the public were deeply concerned they would be motivated to pressure governments for a commitment that is commensurate with the gravity of the problem. The lack of public concern itself is usually ascribed to a lack of awareness/knowledge about the extent of the human and economic losses arising from road crashes. Indeed, awareness/knowledge are considered to be such a linchpin to generating the needed action, that raising the level of awareness about road safety issues among the Canadian public is even an element in what is perhaps the most comprehensive road safety initiative in Canada – Road Safety Vision 2010 – a national program adopted by the Council of Ministers of Transportation and Highway Safety (Transport Canada 2006). The key point is that there is a prevalent belief in the road safety community that if public awareness were increased, their level of concern would escalate, and this would, in turn, mobilize political action, along with producing other benefits such as changes in safe driving practices and, ultimately, fewer road crashes. As appealing as this causal logic might be, it rests upon several fundamental assumptions, for example that there currently exists a lack of public awareness and concern about traffic safety. These assumptions are, however, supported largely by conjecture and anecdote. This report examines data from the Road Safety Monitor that bear directly on these assumptions. (Author/publisher)
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