The City of Calgary and the Calgary Police Service (CPS) are teaming up on a $200K, year-long ad campaign to raise awareness around serious injury and fatal collisions.
The campaign, which launched Sept. 22, features a video and radio ad highlighting the 10-year high in traffic fatalities last year (29), and 27 fatalities in 2025.
Both parties are urging Calgarians to Join the Drive to Zero, which is the tagline for the campaign, which depicts the ripple effect of losing a loved one to a traffic collision on Calgary streets.
Thus far, of the 27 fatal crashes in 2025, eight have involved pedestrians and five have involved motorcyclists, according to CPS Supt. Jodi Gach.
“We can’t accept this as a normal. These tragedies are happening far too often, and we have to do better for ourselves, for our families and for our city,” she told reporters during a news conference at CPS headquarters.
She said that right now, there’s no single cause behind the collisions, but one in three are connected to excessive speed.
“As Calgary grows, our roads become busier than ever, with school back in session and shorter daylight hours, we all need to be extra cautious, especially around schools and residential areas,” Supt. Gach said.
“Road safety is everyone’s responsibility, whether you’re driving, walking, or cycling; we all have a role to play in keeping our city safe.”
The year-long campaign will be found on radio, TV, in Cineplex movie theatres, on Amazon and on Spotify, according to CPS. The $200K will be split between the Calgary Police Service and the City of Calgary.
More traffic safety measures
The sides cited further education, attention and enforcement would play a role in dropping the fatality number down. The City of Calgary acknowledged that road engineering would also play a role.
Ravi Seera, mobility operations manager with the City of Calgary, said that there are several engineering treatments they can do to improve safety and reduce speeds in hotspot areas.
“I see using several tactics, including identifying hotspots where we’re seeing collision trends,” Seera said.
“We’re also piloting use of artificial intelligence so that we can do some predictive modeling and what units are happening and how we can tackle those.”
Seera said the City of Calgary is investing more in countermeasures, including pedestrian crossing features like Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons. There’s a sense of urgency to it as well, Seera said.
“We’re also doing a holistic review of speed limits on our collective roadways, as well as looking at speed limits and speed cushions in collector roads,” he said.
One reporter questioned the need for the campaign with 29 fatalities last year and 27 this year, citing a 1985 city planning document that showed 49 fatal collisions with fewer people in the city.
Gach said that despite the comparison, having one fatality is too many.
“We see the impacts on the families and how it ripples through community,” she said.
“So, the very fact that we’re at 56—last year, we had 29, we have 27 (in 2025) it’s our shared responsibility to act and try and do something to get people to help jump on board with us.”
Gach said there’s no specific trend on who is being hit, or where. She said that it’s a shared responsibility among drivers and pedestrians.
“What we’re really looking at is sort of that global picture of slowing down, staying alert, driving to the conditions we know that road and weather conditions have an impact, waiting until it’s safe before proceeding,” she said.
“So, that’s a big one, is that it’s a shared responsibility. You may have the right of way by law, but that doesn’t mean that somebody else has seen you.”
Gach also noted the impact of not having automated traffic enforcement, however, she said that there have been numerous crashes at intersections without those controls.
