Safe and Active Streets for All: Campaign Coalition Press Conference

Together, we are stronger. We are thankful for the collaboration and support of our community partners. Photo caption: From top row left to right: David Simor, Lanrick Bennett Jr, Daniella Pinto-Levy and her guide dog Angelo, Keagan Gartz, Jess Spieker, Jennifer Mackey, Adrian Currie, Michael Longfield, Bottom row left to right: Ingrid Buday, Sonam Vashith, Alison Stewart, and Marvin Macaraig

Today, Cycle Toronto, The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT), Friends and Families for Safe Streets, and Walk Toronto held a press conference at City Hall to release the results of their election platform survey calling for 10 Priority Actions that, if implemented consistently and systematically across all wards, will make Toronto’s streets safe, equitable, sustainable, and healthy for all. Some highlights include:

• 64% of Councillor and Mayoral candidates completed the survey and their responses were overwhelmingly supportive of our identified priorities:
• 100% of Mayoral candidates who responded support building Complete Streets across every ward in Toronto, Implementing a Vision Zero Safety Checklist and Funding Active School Travel programs
• 93% of Mayoral candidates who responded support accelerating & expanding the Cycling Network Plan, streamlining & calming traffic equitably across the city, and improving safety and accessibility for people 
• 100% of Councillor candidates who responded support building Complete Streets across every ward in Toronto, 99% support implementing a Vision Zero Safety Checklist, 97% support Funding Active School Travel programs, streamlining & calming traffic across the city, and 95% support accelerating & expanding the Cycling Network Plan 

The commuting patterns of candidates support our calls to invest in building complete streets and prioritizing active modes of transportation:

• 36% of Mayoral candidates walk, 29% drive, 21% bike, and 14% take transit
• 29% of Councillor candidates bike, 25% drive, 23% walk and 22% take transit

As Toronto recovers from the impact of COVID-19 and looks to the future, our elected officials need to demonstrate leadership by prioritizing the safety of all road users. Complete and active streets empower people to take up alternative modes of transportation and move away from our reliance on single car use. We have an arsenal of policy tools and programs at our disposal to implement the 10 priority actions we are calling for. Regardless of who is elected on Oct 24th, we will work with Toronto’s 2022-2026 City Council to help them be unequivocal about implementing our priority actions that will make Toronto’s streets safer, across all 25 wards.