Road safety aim of campaign

The Region of Waterloo this week launched the Safe Roads Waterloo Region campaign. The multi-phase public education campaign aims to reduce injuries and fatalities on area roads.

In line with the values of the global Vision Zero movement first launched in Sweden in 1994, the campaign advances the philosophy that no injury or loss of life is acceptable on our roads. The campaign will be implemented in phases through a variety of digital and traditional methods. It will aim to reach a wide target audience of road users in Waterloo Region, including motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

“The purpose of this education campaign is injury and fatality reduction,” said Bob Henderson, the region’s manager of transportation engineering, in a release. “As part of our overall strategy, to continue to implement safety improvements on Regional roads, the education campaign supports these efforts by adding an awareness piece. We want residents to be aware of the data – where, when and why collisions are happening – so we can empower them to play their part in road safety. Achieving our goal requires an effort on the part of all stakeholders – motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, Waterloo Regional Police Services and local government.”

Based on a comprehensive review of collision data by the Region’s transportation staff, the campaign brings awareness to four collision patterns within the community: rear-end collisions at intersections; roundabout collisions resulting from fail-to-yield behaviours; cyclist collisions at signalized crosswalks; pedestrian collisions at signalized crosswalks.