New data collected by a B.C. law firm shows the province is a dangerous place for pedestrians and cyclists.
Preszler Law ranked cities and provinces across the country in terms of the number of incidents recorded from 2015 to Feb. 21, 2025.
B.C. was ranked third in the country for the number of pedestrian deaths with 502 recorded.
Surrey had the highest number of fatalities in B.C. with 52 deaths, which is an average of 1.03 deaths per 100,000 people.
Vancouver was the other B.C. city to make the top 10 list, and although it recorded a higher number of fatalities at 82, that is an average of 0.36 per 100,000 people.
B.C. was ranked second for cyclists’ deaths, with a total of 81.
Surrey was the second deadliest city for cycling fatalities with 11 deaths and an average of 0.21 per 100,000 people.
Vancouver recorded five deaths with an average of 0.02 per 100,000 people.
Preszler Law Firm collected data from multiple sources including Stats Canada, RCMP and local police agencies and the Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics Series.
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Jen Petersen, the executive director of the B.C. Cycling Coalition said she was not surprised to see these numbers.
“Vancouver and Surrey are both, in just about the top 10 most populist cities in Canada, so one would expect they have the most of everything,” she said.
“The other reason, that is slightly more nuanced that I’m not surprised to see those numbers is that British Columbia, despite the fact that we have a climate that often is very accommodating for bicycling and people from all over the world want to come here to enjoy our outdoors, we often underinvest in the kind of infrastructure that makes cycling and even being a pedestrian safe.”
Petersen said the province overinvests in highways and roads.
She added that for 2024 to 2025, the Ministry of Transportation budget for highway investment and operations, was about $1,046 per B.C. resident.
Petersen said that investment in capital and operations for pedestrian and cycling facilities has only been about three dollars per resident from 2011 to 2025.
Another cycling advocate said part of the solution is for cities to build more active transportation networks to take people where they actually want to go.
“Currently, what we have in our cities is pieces of infrastructure that don’t always connect to the destination,” Navdeep Chhina with HUB Cycling said.
“That creates even more chances of conflict between people walking, cycling, people in wheelchairs and people driving.”
According to the information gathered, the most dangerous city in Canada for both cycling and pedestrians was Mississauga, Ont., where 129 people were killed over the past decade.
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