The slumping economy may have had one positive effect — on Calgary’s roads.

Crash numbers have almost been slashed in half.

Calgary police Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey says having fewer vehicles on the road has driven down those numbers.

“In 2013, we had nearly 40 — I think we had 40 or 41 traffic fatalities. We’ve knocked that down to the early (sic) 20s,” Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey said.

“The overall collision rate — not just the fatals, not just the serious injury crashes, but all crashes — we have gone down by probably about 10,000 crashes.”

Stacey believes drivers are less irritated.

“That makes it a little safer, because when it’s less frustrating, people take less chances, they do less irrational things, so, with the traffic being just a little bit lighter, it’s flowing better and people are happy to get from point A to point B and keep the wheels rolling,” he said.

There are still a million vehicles, and 900,000 drivers registered in Calgary.

“There’s still a lot of driving being done out there, but I think we’re actually pretty successful in our traffic safety efforts,” Stacey explained.