Residents of Roberts Creek, 400 of them at last count, are asking the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) for a stoplight at the intersection of Highway 101 and Roberts Creek Road.
Yvone Mounsey began placing petitions at a few busy spots around Roberts Creek as the provincial election was getting into gear in May. Her petition asks MOTI to address the problems at 101 and Roberts Creek Road including ferry traffic volume, hampered access to the highway by emergency vehicles, confusion over right-of-way and speeding.
Mounsey said personal experience with the intersection has prompted her to take action.
"Just as a driver, just feeling really uncomfortable with this intersection and having a lot of close calls here to the extent that I don't use this intersection anymore. I avoid it," she said.
Mounsey said she was also inspired to start the petition after seeing Norwest Bay Road get a stop light where she says problems were not as bad as they are on Roberts Creek Road.
Vehicle traffic isn't the only concern Mounsey has. She said pedestrians and transit riders who use the bus stops there, including children, are being put at undue risk crossing the highway.
"We're trying to encourage people to travel on the bus, and if I was a parent, I would be hesitant to encourage my child or even my teenage child to be getting off the bus here," she said.
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons was on hand to receive the petition on Wednesday night, July 29. He said he would introduce it to the legislature when it begins sitting again in September.
"I'm also going to make sure it's on the list of things to talk to the Minister of Transportation about," Simons said. "We're doing everything by the appropriate channels and the Ministry of Transportation knows we're here and we're talking about this petition and we're asking them to look carefully at this intersection."
Simons acknowledged the potential for danger at the intersection, especially for pedestrians who have to cross what seems like four lanes of traffic to get to the bus stop.
Donna Shugar, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director for Roberts Creek, was on hand for the event and said she shares Mounsey's concerns.
The SCRD transportation committee has had discussions on the intersection and made a list of concerns.
"We have articulated those to Don Legault, the [MOTI] area manager. We've sent him a letter and asked him to take it up the line," Shugar said.
She added the Roberts Creek volunteer fire department has repeatedly raised safety concerns about the intersection in its annual report, which the SCRD forwards to MOTI.
"We really want it to get some attention," she said.
Fire Chief Bruce Searle said he has been asking for a traffic light at 101 and Roberts Creek road for 10 years. "From the fire department's point of view, we need to have access when we need it, across the highway," Searle said. "It's really hard to get out onto the highway, even with lights and sirens - people just look at us and drive right by."
He said he would like to see a traffic light that the fire department could control when their emergencies need to pre-empt traffic.
"We'd have access through. The police would have access through. The ambulance would have access through and it would be safe for us," he said.
Mounsey said she doesn't know what the chances of getting a light are, but she hopes MOTI will consider before a serious accident happens there.
"Fortunately there haven't been very many serious accidents here but it's a miracle," she said.
