Parachute Youth Road Safety Advocacy Toolkit 1: Road safety is a public health issue

In 2023, according to Transport Canada, 1,964 people were killed and 9,261 were seriously injured on Canadian roads.

These figures marked a 10-year high in road deaths and a five-year high in serious injuries. Behind each of those numbers is a person: someone’s friend, sibling, parent, coworker, teammate or classmate whose life was lost or drastically changed unnecessarily. These preventable deaths and serious injuries leave lasting impacts on families, communities and society. 

Transport incidents, including motor vehicle collisions, are the second-leading cause of injury hospitalizations and the third-leading cause of unintentional injury deaths in Canada. Within that, certain groups have an increased risk for being involved in a motor vehicle collision. Youth and young adults are injured in crashes at a higher rate than any other age group – and are killed at a higher rate than anyone except those over 70 years old. 

Whether you walk, drive, bike, skate, or take the bus, the road is one of the most dangerous places you’ll encounter today and it’s one you can’t avoid. But the numbers only tell you so much. Read what it looks like when someone your age decides the roads can be better, told in her own words.

While all of this may feel overwhelming, there’s still reason for hope: up to 90 per cent of motor vehicle collisions are preventable! Not “maybe someday preventable.” Preventable with changes we already know how to make, today. Right now, there’s a big gap between what we know works and what’s in place. That’s where you come in. Now that you understand the problem, let’s explore how you can be part of the solution. 

What is advocacy?

Advocacy, in basic terms, means speaking up to achieve positive change, whether for a particular cause, a policy or an idea. It involves sharing your ideas about what needs to change with decision-makers and the broader public, making a convincing case for why that change is important. 

A campaign is advocacy with a strategic plan: an organized effort to target a specific change. Campaigns raise awareness of a cause, build a strong base of support, influence policymakers and, ultimately, make change happen. Advocacy isn’t something to be afraid of; you don’t need years of experience, a diploma or deep pockets to get started: just an idea and the desire to see it through. 

You may be wondering: why is advocacy important in road safety? Every aspect of the road that affects our safety is a choice. Every speed limit, protected bike lane and crosswalk exists because someone decided to put it there and someone else advocated for the change. This toolkit exists because your voice, aimed at the right person, with the right approach and the right ask, can be one of the most powerful road safety tools there is. You’ll also likely find that once you speak up, there are many others who share your perspective.

Six myths that deserve to be busted 

Before you start advocating, let’s talk about some ideas that hold people back. You might hear these from friends, family or the internet. 

Myth 1: Crashes happen because of bad drivers. If everyone just drove properly, nobody would get hurt.

People make mistakes on the road. We are not perfect, so crashes are bound to happen, but a mistake shouldn’t cost a life. This is what Vision Zero is all about. The goal of Vision Zero is just what it sounds like: nobody dies or is seriously injured on our roads. Rather than expecting people to behave perfectly, Vision Zero focuses on creating a transportation system that prevents these inevitable mistakes from becoming fatal.

While this sounds ambitious, we already know how to prevent these deaths. Zero traffic-related deaths have been achieved by international cities including Hoboken, New Jersey, for nine consecutive years. Many other countries and cities have made significant progress, including Sweden; Oslo, Norway; Helsinki, Finland; and Edmonton, Alberta. 

Vision Zero is built on the idea that whether you’re in a car or not, you have the right to get where you’re going and make it home safely. While still an important piece of the issue, believing that individual behaviour is the only problem is not effective. Instead of expecting perfect behaviour from everyone, the Safe System Approach, which is a framework many jurisdictions use to move toward Vision Zero, asks that roads, crossings, speed limits, and vehicles be designed so that when a collision occurs, nobody dies. These types of interventions minimize harm even when individuals make mistakes. 

Learn more about Vision Zero and the Safe System Approach. 

Myth 2: A road is only dangerous when a crash actually happens.

Think of all the near misses you’ve seen or been a part of on the road: the driver who went through a stop sign, the cyclist who was nearly struck because they didn’t have a protected bike lane available, the corner everyone speeds around. While nothing happened in that moment, that doesn’t mean nothing ever will. For every fatal crash that occurred, there are many incidents in which “nothing happened.” But these near-miss incidents are warning signs of a road that’s failing, and they’re the type of evidence advocates should use to implement road safety measures before tragedy strikes.

Myth 3: Road safety is just about vehicles and drivers.

While the big stories you hear in this space typically involve vehicles and drivers, there is so much more to road safety. Road safety includes everyone who uses the road: pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, skateboarders, people on e-scooters and e-bikes, and people using mobility aids, such as wheelchairs. Many young people don’t drive and yet they still navigate dangerous roads every single day. Road safety impacts everyone, everywhere.

Myth 4: Road safety is its own isolated issue.

You might think road safety is its own isolated issue, but it’s actually connected to many other causes you care about. Many of the causes you might care about relate to our roads somehow, which means if you care about it, you already care about road safety.

It’s a public health issue

Road deaths and injuries land in emergency rooms, trauma centres, and rehab units every day, so every crash prevented through advocacy is one less patient in an already strained healthcare system. 

It’s an equity issue

Roads in lower-income neighbourhoods often lack the safe infrastructure found elsewhere, such as sidewalks, crosswalks and protected bike lanes, and typically have wider, faster roads cutting through them.At the same time, people in these neighbourhoods are more likely to walk, bike or take transit, which means more time exposed to traffic with no protection at times. This also disproportionately affects people who do not have access to a car, including children, people with disabilities and older adults who may have a harder time moving around. 

All this results in the people with the fewest resources facing the highest risk and, because these communities often have less of a voice, these problems aren’t prioritized. This is exactly where advocacy comes in.

It’s a climate issue

Streets that are safe for walking and biking mean fewer car trips, leading to greener cities with less pollution and lower carbon emissions. 

Myth 5: That’s just the way roads are. Nothing’s going to change.

Nothing about our roads is an “accident”. Every speed limit, every crossing, every lane was a decision somebody made. But decisions can be changed. The solutions aren’t a mystery either; we have a good idea about what makes roads safer, as you’ll come to see in the next sections. What’s usually missing isn’t knowledge; it’s pressure on the people who make those decisions. That’s where you come in: if the system was built by choices, your voice is how the next choice gets made. 

Myth 6: Young people are the problem on the roads.

You’ll hear this one a lot; even Canada’s national road safety strategy identifies young drivers as a key risk group. But there’s also another way to look at this: being one of the age groups most at risk makes you the age group with the most reason to demand change. 

Young people bring things to advocacy that no one else can: lived experience, passion, energy and a refusal to accept “that’s how it’s always been.” Around the world and across Canada, youth are already striving to make our roads safer, being part of the change that desperately must happen. 

But don’t just take this toolkit’s word for it. Read one young advocate’s story, in their own words.