Nearly two-thirds of Toronto residents, 63 per cent, say road maintenance and traffic flow in their community is bad or terrible, according to a new poll on getting around the city.
However, when asked for their overall ability to get where they need to go, the survey by Canada Pulse Insights for CityNews found a majority, 55 per cent, gave it an A or B.
Twenty-seven per cent awarded the roads a C and 18 per cent graded them a D or F.
When it came to transit, 59 per cent of residents believe the public transit system is on the right track and serving them well, however, safety remains a concern for riders.
Of those polled, 81 per cent rated availability as great or good, however only 37 per cent would give the TTC an A or B on the transit report card. Another third of those polled gave it a C while 30 per cent would give it a D or F.
Thirty-seven per cent said they have personally witnessed or experienced something on transit that made them feel unsafe and 30 per cent said they felt unsafe when riding.
Women, at 36 per cent, were more likely to feel unsafe versus men at 24 per cent. Riders between the ages of 18 to 34 and those 35 to 54 were more likely than older adults to have seen or experienced something that made them feel unsafe at 43 and 41 per cent versus 26 per cent.
Transit riders who have seen or experienced something that made them feel unsafe were also more likely, 78 per cent of those polled, than other riders, at 52 per cent, to fear becoming a victim of violence on transit.
They were also more likely to give transit a D or F and less likely to agree that the TTC is on the right track.
Toronto mayoral candidates, Brad Bradford and incumbent Olivia Chow, have released plans solve gridlock. Chow said she’ll hire more traffic agents to keep intersections clear, and invest in AI traffic lights and a new command centre for traffic operations.
Bradford’s plan also includes smart traffic signals but he wants to push more construction projects overnight, to get more lanes open in time for rush hour and expand signal priority to Toronto’s entire streetcar network.
In the GTA, 60 per cent residents said their transit systems were on the right track and only two-thirds rated it’s availability as great or good.
They did give their systems stronger report-card grades than Toronto with 42 per cent giving it an A or B, 34 per cent a C and 24 per cent a D or F.
GTA residents also reported fewer safety concerns with just a quarter, 24 per cent, saying they had seen or experience something on transit in the past year while 17 per cent felt unsafe riding.
However, transit use is much lower in the GTA with 22 per cent of residents saying they don’t use it compared to just seven per cent of Torontonians saying they don’t use the TTC.
Road maintenance and traffic flow received low ratings from 54 per cent of GTA residents but 51 per cent have their overall ability to get where they need to go an A or B.
Thirty-one per cent gave it a C and 18 per cent gave it a D or F.
This survey was conducted among a random sample of 510 adult residents of the City of Toronto and 825 GTA residents including Peel Region, Durham Region, York Region, and Halton Region by Canada Pulse Insights between September 14 and 25, 2026 through an online panel platform managed by Sago. The margin of error for a probability-based sample of this size is ±4.3 percentage points for Toronto and ±3.4 for the GTA, 19 times out of 20.
