71% of Calgarians feel this city is a safe place to be, survey says

mikecphoto/Shutterstock

Calgarians are seemingly feeling safer around the city these days, compared to how things were six months ago.

In a recent survey conducted by the City of Calgary, nearly three-quarters of respondents said, overall, they consider this city a safe place to be.

The study, which has been conducted three times dating back to July 2022, asked 500 randomly selected Calgarians questions about how they felt regarding transit safety at different times of the day as well as how they view Calgary in terms of overall safety.

You might also like:

Among those surveyed, 72% said they feel safe riding a CTrain during the day, an increase of 5% from what it was in May 2023 when the survey was last conducted.

The percentage of people surveyed who said they feel safer waiting at a CTrain station during the day also rose, with 70% responding positively compared to 64% in May.

“Calgarians want and deserve the very best – and safest – experience using our transit system, whether riding our LRT, buses or shuttle vehicles,” Kay Choi, community safety and wellbeing lead with the City of Calgary, said in a statement.

But even with an increase in positive responses, concerns largely remain for people riding transit at night.

Of those surveyed, only 39% of people said they felt safe on the CTrain after dark, while 34% said they felt safer waiting for a CTrain at that time.

Previously, those numbers were 33% and 27%, respectively.

“I’m encouraged to see we have been able to move the needle on safety,” said Choi.

“And recognize we still have a long way to go to help Calgarians feel safe in and around our CTrains.”

The City said that along with the perception of safety trending in the right direction, the number of reported incidents caused by social disorder, such as disturbances and open drug use on CTrains, is also down.

Between October 1 and December 15, 2023, a total of 3,450 social disorder incidents were reported. A total of 4,146 incidents were reported during that time frame the previous year.

The Perspectives on Calgary Survey, with a focus on safety, has run three times in the past two years: July 19 to 28 2022; May 16 to 26 2023; and most recently, November 13 to 23 2023.

The survey gathers information from 500 randomly selected Calgarians and covers topics regarding the perceptions of safety in Calgary, including in communities where citizens live, downtown and Calgary Transit.

As a random and representative survey, the City said, it has a margin of error of ± 4.4% 19 times out of 20.

The next survey is slated for Spring 2024.

You might also like: