Results of Transport Canada’s September 2004 Survey of Seat Belt Use in Rural Areas of the Country

NHTSA · 2005 · ROSA P / Canada. Transport Canada

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Summary

This report presents the findings of Transport Canada’s September 2004 observational survey of seat belt usage in rural areas, conducted as part of the National Occupant Restraint Program (NORP 2010). The study was motivated by Road Safety Vision 2010, a federal, provincial, and territorial partnership aiming to make Canada’s roads the safest in the world. A primary objective of NORP 2010 is to achieve a minimum 95% national seat belt usage rate and ensure proper use of child restraints. This survey served as a baseline assessment to help build a business case for measures intended to increase rural seat belt usage from the observed 86.9% to the target of 95% by 2010. The methodology involved observational data collection across 252 sites in rural communities, defined as towns with populations between 1,000 and 10,000 (or over 10,000 if not classified as census agglomerations) located outside metropolitan areas. The survey targeted all occupants of light-duty vehicles, including passenger cars, minivans, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and light trucks. Data were collected over the week of September 22–28, 2004, during daylight hours. Observers recorded data for 39,769 vehicles and 58,743 occupants, with each observation period lasting two hours. The results indicate that an estimated 86.9% of all occupants in rural light-duty vehicles used seat belts. Usage rates varied significantly by vehicle type, with occupants of light trucks showing the lowest compliance at 79.9%, compared to 89.3% for passenger cars and 89.5% for minivans and SUVs. Gender analysis revealed that female drivers had higher seat belt usage rates (92.2%) than male drivers (85.8%), a trend consistent across most provinces and vehicle types, though the gap was widest in Prince Edward Island. Usage also increased with driver age, ranging from 84.4% for drivers under 25 to 89.7% for those 50 and older. Provincial data showed that Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan met or exceeded the national average, while Atlantic provinces, Alberta, British Columbia, and the territories generally fell below it. Comparing the 2004 data to the 2002 rural survey, which focused only on front-seat occupants, the national rural rate for front-seat occupants increased from 85.0% to 87.1%. Significant changes were noted in specific jurisdictions; for example, Manitoba saw a substantial increase from 80.8% to 91.3%, while Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories experienced declines. The report concludes that these findings are critical for identifying areas requiring intervention to meet NORP 2010 goals. Transport Canada planned a complementary survey of urban communities and rural fringes in fall 2005 to further support these safety initiatives.

Key finding

An estimated 86.9 percent of rural light-duty vehicle occupants wore seat belts, with light-truck occupants lowest at 79.9 percent versus 89.3 percent in passenger cars.

Methodology

field_study

Sample size: 58743

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• seat belt use

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence