Toronto: in a survey of the Research Forum For those who have a bicycle as a primary means of transport, 60% said they did not believe that roads are safe
The majority of Toronto residents don’t believe the city’s streets are safe for cyclists, according to a new poll released Monday.
The Forum Research poll, which randomly sampled 2521 Toronto voters, found that about 60 per cent of respondents said they do not believe roads are safe for those riding bicycles. Nearly 20 per cent said roads are “not at all safe” for cyclists.
For those who use a bicycle for their primary mode of transportation, 67 per cent said they do not believe roads are safe and 25 per cent said they are “not at all safe.”
Among those who use a private vehicle for their primary mode of transportation, 40 per cent said they believe the city’s streets are safe for cyclists.
While about 65 per cent of all respondents said they believe Toronto roads are safe for pedestrians, among those who said walking was their primary mode of transportation, only 50 per cent said they believe roads are safe.
The survey also assessed views surrounding the Vision Zero Road Safety Plan, a strategy focused on reducing the number of traffic-related fatalities and injuries on Toronto streets.
The poll found that about 32 per cent of respondents were aware of the plan and about 56 per cent said they were not.
“Awareness of Vision Zero is up, but amongst those that know about it, more than half say it isn’t doing enough,” Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, said in his analysis accompanying the poll.
The poll, which was conducted on June 29 and June 30, is considered accurate plus or minus three per cent, 19 times out of 20.
