Concerns about traffic safety have been a key issue in North America for well over 100 years. In that time there have been great strides toward improving public roadways and motor vehicles. Our roadways contain advanced designs that few persons in the public domain are aware of. Signage and roadway markings have been standardized for decades. Vehicles have improved tremendously through numerous federal motor vehicle safety standards. And recent technological improvements have greatly increased collision avoidance. It is rarely understood that, since the mid-1970’s, the numbers of fatalities on public roadways have fallen year after year. That is the good news.
The bad news is that the general public has not kept up with their knowledge of road safety. Very basic facts that ought to be known are, for bazaar reasons, kept from public awareness. This may appear innocuous because no one can see how a lack of knowledge can be life-threatening, but it is. What is a life-threatening incident? And what is something that may appear dangerous but is likely to cause only minor injury? Knowledge of these basic things could change behaviors but that will not happen.
In the vicinity of London Ontario there are many transportation issues that pose safety concerns. But there is no reliable source that can publicly differentiate the really bad things from those less dangerous. Officials in the Province of Ontario do very little to create this awareness. Municipal representatives do little because they themselves do not recognize how to prioritize safety concerns. Local police are more tied up with dangerous criminals and have far less resources, or focus, on programs that prevent accidental injury and death. And official news media are so concerned with the threats of social media that they have shrunk in numbers and influence. All these representatives of our society seem very incapable of providing any useful knowledge to the public about what safety issues are important.
As the CTV News news agency in London Ontario has essentially become the only official news-reporting group in the City, whatever it reports is widely distributed. Recently CTV news has made several reports on citizen concerns about traffic safety.
In an article published on February 28, 2025 CTV news reported on concerns expressed by residents after a collision occurred on the curve of Western Road just north of Oxford Street. Quotes from several persons demonstrated that the collision site was unacceptably unsafe.
In another CTV News article posted on March 24, 2025 residents were quoted again about their safety concerns after a fatal pedestrian collision occurred at the intersection of Bradley Ave and Ernest Ave in the White Oaks area. One resident stated: “It’s ridiculous how many incidents there are, and I really hope something improves, so this area is a lot safer.”
In an article published on July 9, 2025 CTV reported on concerns expressed by residents about safety concerns in the Old North neighbourhood north of the City’s downtown.
A week later, on July 15, 2025, CTV reported once again about citizen complaints with respect to safety at the intersection of Wortley Road and Emery Street in the Old South neighbourhood.
On July 21, 2025 CTV News posted another article about concerns expressed by residents with respect to the intersection of Hyde Park Road and Fitzwilliam Boulevard in south-west London. This was after a fatal collision involving a motorcycle occurred there on July 16, 2025. Once again several residents indicated this site “…has long been a safety concern…”
On July 31st CTV reported on complaints expressed by a resident about dangerous driving in the SoHo neighbourhood south-east of the City’s downtown.
On August 13, 2025, CTV news reported that the intersection of Viscount Road and Steeplechase Drive was “extraordinarily dangerous”. The article indicated that a pedestrian was struck at that intersection “earlier this year” but that collision was not reported by any news agency.
Some of these resident concerns may reveal genuine safety problems but it is difficult to be certain. This is because there is absolutely no objective data provided either by the City of London, nor by the London City Police, as to where safety problems are revealed in their collected data.
The old adage “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is a cute way of saying, if you want something just shout loudly. In terms of road safety that type of functioning should not apply. For the benefit of all, roadway improvements should be based on solid objective data, not on who shouts the loudest. However, very often, it is those loud shouts that are the canaries in the coal mine that reveal a safety problem long before it is officially recognized.
Unfortunately those officials responsible for road safety are not the best gatekeepers of the public’s interests. The litigious society in which we live is full of plaintiff lawyers who make money by submitting claims and taking a percentage of the money. In response there are lawyers working for the defendants against those claims. Plaintiff lawyers pad their case wherever possible and defendants hide themselves from plaintiff discovery whenever possible. This combination emphasizes minor safety problems while also hiding important and legitimate ones. The public does not recognize how this legal interplay prevents legitimate safety problems from being identified and corrected.
Amongst the many things held in secret, the number of traffic complaints processed by the City of London is unknown. So again, those citizens complaining about their traffic problems are unaware whether their concerns are unique and important or whether they are one of many competing demands from across the City.
While official news agencies such as CTV news ought to be informing the public about legitimate safety problems that is often not the case. As investigative journalists have been moving toward extinction their objective assessments also move in that direction. Articles that are published about road safety should be based on a thorough knowledge of the subject matter, however, with the increased complexity of our society, journalists cannot be experts in every field being reported. And in terms of road safety substantial expertise is needed to properly inform the public. Journalists cannot just report on the “squeakiest wheels” but on whether those wheels actually need fixing. That is difficult to do when you have little expertise in the matter.
Increasingly, the public receives its news from internet social platforms where anyone can post anything and the success of those posts depends on whether enough of the public is accepting of the sermon being preached. This fake news is built on a fake foundation which jeopardizes the proper functioning of a democratic society.
It has been the long-standing opinion of Gorski Consulting that many traffic complaints could be satisfactorily resolved if there was greater transparency in official circles about what the objective data says about those complaints. Educating the public is key to removing frivolous complaints while strengthening the public’s voice when a genuine traffic safety issue has not been officially recognized.
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