The adoption of Road Safety Vision 2010 by the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) and the official endorsement of the new road safety targets by all Ministers of Transportation and Highway Safety in the fall of 2000 provided Canada’s road safety community with benchmarks against which to develop new strategies and measure intervention efforts. Previous Road Safety Vision reports introduced the program, outlined successful road safety initiatives implemented in Canada and other leading countries and described the success of the program to date. This report outlines proposed and recently implemented strategies aimed at achieving or surpassing the targets intrinsic to Road Safety Vision 2010. In Canada, motor vehicles are a pervasive fact of life. With 900,000 kilometres of roadways, almost 18 million registered vehicles and more than 20 million licensed drivers, Canadians are among the most mobile people in the world. Motor vehicles enable Canadians to overcome the fundamental challenges of the country: vast geography and a harsh climate. However, this mobility does not come without consequences. More than 2,900 road users were killed and another 227,000 were injured in traffic collisions during 2000. For individuals and society alike, the toll is immense. Collectively, the social cost to Canadians is at least $10 billion per year (about 1% of GDP). Traffic fatalities peaked in the early 1970s. Since that time, Canada’s population has grown by 40%, and the number of vehicles has increased by 80%. Despite this increased mobility, the number of traffic fatalities has been cut by more than half. This impressive improvement is the result of a combination of factors, including interventions that focused on getting motorists to buckle up and to refrain from driving after drinking, improved vehicle safety standards, safer road designs, improved emergency medical services and tougher police enforcement measures. (Author/publisher)
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