Vancouver has seen a steady drop in the number of traffic-related deaths since 2007 and is continuing to see a decline in the number of serious injuries to pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and motorists.
Data recently shared with city council from city staff shows Vancouver has become a safer place on the roads than in years past, with fewer than 19 deaths per year recorded between 2008 and 2023.
“Each one of these numbers is a tragedy, but thankfully fatalities are rare events,” said Paul Storer, the city’s director of transportation, in a presentation to council in July. “It's a little hard to say how much of this is related to chance, and how much is a trend, so it’s important to look over the long term.”
The death toll was much worse between 1996 and 2007, when a total of 305 people died. That’s an average of 28 deaths per year. The highest number of fatalities — 39 — occurred in 1998. The lowest was eight in 2020.
In a slide that looked at 14 fatalities that occurred in a recent year, 60 per cent of the victims were pedestrians, 26 per cent were motorists, 12 per cent motorcyclists and two per cent cyclists.
The data showed serious injuries to cyclists dropped 56 per cent between 2011 and 2023. Pedestrians saw similar decreases in the same time period, with a 36 per cent drop. Motorists saw injuries drop by 1.3 per cent.
The data is based on serious injuries that occurred per 10,000 daily trips.
'This is really positive'
Storer pointed to the city’s focus on infrastructure improvements for cyclists and pedestrians as factors in Vancouver becoming a safer place for people who choose not to use a motor vehicle.
The City of Vancouver’s stated goal is to eliminate all fatalities and serious injuries on the city’s transportation network. Council heard that staff continues to work with the Vancouver Police Department, ICBC and Vancouver Coastal Health to achieve that goal.
Reducing speed limits, adding protected bike lanes, adding longer walk signals, implementing dedicated bus lanes, reallocating road space to pedestrians and widening sidewalks is among some of the work that continues to be done.
The decline in deaths and serious injuries has occurred despite an increase in population.
“Over the long term, this is really positive,” Storer said. “But like many other cities though, we saw a spike in fatalities after the first year of COVID, and the numbers over the last few years are still much higher than we'd like.”
Staff said the eight deaths recorded in 2020 — considered a low fatality rate based on the data — can be attributed to fewer people walking, cycling and using a motor vehicle during the first year of the pandemic.
In 2021, the death toll reached 18, dropped to 14 in 2022 and 14 in 2023. As of this month, police had responded to eight fatalities this year involving pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and motorists.
Bus overcrowding
In 2020 and 2021, the city data showed an increase of people using a motor vehicle to travel in Vancouver, at 56 per cent of trip volumes in both years — substantially higher than 46 and 47 per cent respectively in 2018 and 2019.
Staff pointed out motor vehicle use is trending down this year to pre-COVID levels. The same trend has occurred with people using transit, which dropped significantly in 2020 to seven per cent and is now at 17 per cent.
In fact, more people are relying on transit, with more than 10 per cent of bus trips overcrowded in 2023, according to city staff, which noted Vancouver has the third highest bus ridership in North America.
Meanwhile, the launch of the Broadway Subway has been delayed and is now scheduled to open in the fall of 2027.
