Aggressive driving can be especially dangerous around schools

Ottawa’s “Time is Precious” ad campaign addresses the most common cause of fatal or major injury collisions during the month of November – collisions involving aggressive drivers.

Feature Story

The City of Ottawa’s Road Safety Action Plan uses a data driven approach to address the greatest causes of fatal or major injury collisions each month. Data collected show that aggressive driving consistently contributes to these types of collisions throughout the year. Between 2019 and 2023, 61 per cent of fatal and major injury collisions involved high-risk driving behaviour which includes aggressive driving.

Through the City of Ottawa Road Safety Action Plan, staff collect and analyze data to address the most egregious behaviour on city roads. Efforts are made to educate the public as one of the ways we try to make our streets safer for all road users. If you find yourself identifying with one of these practices or experience it from someone else while behind the wheel, read on to find out what to do.

School zone traffic safety

Younger children often have limited experience with traffic, and lack the skills to negotiate traffic safely, motorists need to take special care while driving. Help our children get to school safely by following these important safety rules:

• Reduce speed in school zones and areas
• Look for school zone and school area signage
• Be ready to stop at all times: children do not always notice oncoming traffic
• Always try to make eye contact with children wanting to cross the road
• Be patient and wait for children to complete their crossing before proceeding
• Obey all yield, stop and traffic signal controls. It's the law
• Stop when a STOP paddle is held up by a crossing guard

Speed matters. Slow down. Save lives.

• At 30 km/h – 90 per cent chance a pedestrian survives
• At 40 km/h – 60 per cent chance a pedestrian survives
• At 50 km/h – just 20 per cent chance a pedestrian survives
• At 60+ km/h – survival drops to zero

Aggressive driving What is aggressive driving?

According to the Province of Ontario, aggressive driving includes:

• Speeding
• Tailgating or following too closely
• Cutting off other drivers, or cutting in front and then slowing down
• Refusing to yield the right of way
• Honking repeatedly, or for no reason
• Running red lights
• Excessive lane changes or weaving through traffic
• Passing too close to cyclists
• Stopping on a pedestrian crosswalk at an intersection

What to do when aggressive driving happens

The Ottawa Police Service encourages you to report incidents of aggressive driving. It’s how you can help make Ottawa roads safer. If it’s an emergency and needs an immediate police response, call 9-1-1. For non-emergency situations, you can call the police or report the incident online. You will need to provide as much of the following information as possible:

• Incident: date, time, location, direction of travel.
• Driver Information: driver description (male/female, age, hair, etc).
• Vehicle Information: licence Plate (number, province), vehicle (year, make, model, colour, car/truck/bicycle/ any other features (trailer hitch, modified parts, etc).
• Details of the incident
• Your information: name, address, phone (home, business, mobile), date of birth.

You can prevent future aggressive driving by setting a good example for the younger ones, even if they don’t yet drive. Our children learn by observing so set a good example by being safe, calm and courteous behind the wheel.

Countermeasures to address aggressive driving

The City has a number of countermeasures funded through the Road Safety Action Plan that it uses to discourage speeding and other aggressive driving behaviours. On major roads, this includes measures like narrower lanes and roundabouts. In residential areas, this includes measures like speed humps, narrowed streets, curb extensions or various temporary traffic calming measures. You can find details of some of the countermeasure in our 2025 Implementation Plan.

Stay calm behind the wheel

1. Plan ahead. Check the City’s interactive traffic map and allow yourself enough travel time to prevent a time crunch.
2. Identify alternate routes.
3. Just be late. Being late for work or an appointment is better than endangering your life or the life of someone else.
4. Keep the kids content. With young children, take regular stops and bring plenty of items to keep them occupied.
5. Don’t let traffic congestion or construction get to you. See tip #1 for help with that.

Protect yourself from aggressive drivers

1. Don’t take it personally. Be polite, even if the other driver is not.
2. Keep your eyes on the road. Don’t provoke an aggressive driver further by making negative eye contact or gesturing.
3. Always be a courteous driver. Set an example for other drivers by always being courteous and driving defensively.
4. Take all safety measures. The number one passenger safety precaution is to make sure everyone is properly buckled up.

The City of Ottawa continues to make improvements to the safety of our roads and pathways with an emphasis on protecting vulnerable users – pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. The City’s 2020-2024 Road Safety Action Plan guides these engineering, education and enforcement initiatives. But even the safest transportation network requires that everyone follows the rules of the road for their mode of transportation.