The Safest Ontario City for Driving May Not Be Where You Expect

Vehicles make their way into and out of downtown Toronto along the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto in a file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Toronto may be the worst city in Canada for bumper-to-bumper traffic, but it also boasts the title of being the safest Ontario city for driving.

Insurtech company MyChoice published its rankings this week of the 10 best and 10 worst cities for driving in the province, ranking Ontario’s capital a solid 4.5 on its zero to five scoring system. The higher the score, the better the safety ranking.

Three greater Toronto area (GTA) communities—East York, North York, and Whitby—were close behind with scores of 4.2 out of five.

While Toronto was named the safest place to drive in the province, due to its “consistently low” accident and infraction rates, Brantford was labelled the most dangerous, scoring just 0.7 out of five because of high collision and traffic violation rates. Kingston also scored 0.7 out of five.

“Metropolitan regions like Toronto and North York show significantly lower rates of accidents and infractions compared to mid-sized cities like Kingston and Brantford,” MyChoice said in its report.

The driver safety study used internal data gathered from more than 150,000 car insurance quotes since 2020, including collision and driving violation records, the company said.

“This approach emphasizes the relative severity of accidents while accounting for traffic violations as a predictive factor for road safety,” the report said.

The top 10 safest cities for driving and their scores are:

• Toronto— 4.5
• East York— 4.2
• North York— 4.2
• Whitby— 4.2
• Scarborough—3.9
• Markham—3.8
• Mississauga—3.7
• Ottawa—3.6
• Etobicoke—3.6
• Richmond Hill—3.4

The top 10 most dangerous cities for driving and their scores are:

• Brantford—0.7
• Kingston—0.7
• Burlington—0.8
• Brampton— 1.1
• Hamilton—1.3
• Ajax—1.3
• Bolton—1.3
• Barrie—1.5
• Windsor—1.7
• Pickering—1.8

The drivers with the highest number of infractions on record can be found in Brantford, with Hamilton a close runner-up and Woodbridge coming in third, the report said.

The drivers with the most accidents on their records can be found in Kingston, with Burlington and Brampton taking second and third place respectively.