Map of the week: Fatal traffic accidents

Click on the image for map.

PAWEL DWULIT/TORONTO STAR

This week's map (link) is the start of a new permanent map project, which will map fatal traffic accidents in much the same way we now map homicides.

As with the homicide maps, it takes a couple of years' worth of data for patterns to be very clear, but a few things stand out.

One is how relatively safe the 400-series highways actually are. Could it be consistency of driver behaviour?

We can also see some problem intersections. Three people have died at Taunton Rd. and Lake Ridge Rd. in Whitby this year, in two separate accidents.

Another is how dangerous rural roads can be. Even bearing in mind the cautions about generalizing from small sample sizes, the pattern is still very clear:

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GTA communities: 2008 road deaths to date per 100,000

                                                                   

East Gwillimbury	14.24
Milton	12.98
Halton Hills	5.43
Caledon	5.26
Scugog	4.66
Whitby	1.8
Brampton	1.61
Toronto	1.32
Clarington	1.29
Oakville	1.21
Markham	1.15
Ajax	1.11
Mississauga	0.75
Richmond Hill	0.61
Burlington	0.61
Vaughan	0.42