MOTI looking at changes
The Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) transportation committee heard May 2 that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is studying ways to improve safety near the scene of a March 21 fatal accident.
Janice Farrell, 86, died after being hit by a car while trying to cross Highway 101 at Oceanview Drive. She had just gotten off a bus, and RCMP said at the time poor weather and bad visibility may have contributed to the accident.
Lorne Lewis, the SCRD director for Elphinstone, told the committee that three pedestrians have been killed on the stretch of Highway 101 from Poplars Trailer Park to Seaview Cemetery since 1994.
Lewis said in the weeks since the accident people have been asking for new safety measures, including a set of pedestrian controlled lights and a lower speed limit (it’s currently an 80 km/h zone).
Acting MOTI operations manager Don Legault said the ministry is already looking into several possibilities, including better lighting. Legault noted that there’s a light on the northbound side of the highway, but not the southbound.
“We have made some recommendations for additional pedestrian [crossing warning] signage, as well as for an additional overhead light,” Legault said.
The committee voted to write the ministry, and ICBC, urging them to move forward with an improvement project.
Bad drivers in school zones
The latest reports from Sunshine Coast Speed Watch suggest a lot of drivers still aren’t clear about school zones.
Speed Watch volunteers were out at Roberts Creek Elementary seven times in February and four in March. More than 30 per cent of drivers were clocked doing more than 11 km/h over the 30 km/h limit, and some were going more than 70 km/h.
Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell said the trend of speeding in the Roberts Creek Elementary school/playground zone “continues to be disturbing.”
At Gibsons and Cedar Grove elementary schools, Speed Watch found between seven and eight per cent of drivers breaking the speed limit by more than 11 km/h during monitoring in February.
Parking enforcement
Transportation Minister Todd Stone is promising to look into giving regional districts more power to enforce parking restrictions in rural areas.
Stone’s reply to a letter from SCRD chair Garry Nohr was released at the transportation committee’s May 2 meeting.
“I recognize that parking along highways in rural areas can sometimes affect the use of property of adjacent landholders and cause congestion,” Stone wrote. The letter says ministry staff will contact the SCRD to “determine where actions could be taken in the short term to address parking enforcement.”
Bike to Work Week
Transportation Choices Sunshine Coast (TraC) is well into the planning for Bike to Work Week (May 30 to June 5), and the group is asking the SCRD to streamline the way it helps fund the annual event.
TraC representative Alun Woolliams told the transportation advisory committee that they’d like to be funded through the main budget, instead of having to apply for grants in aid every year.
Woolliams told the committee they’re hoping to have a protected bike lane on Pratt Road during Bike to Work Week leading to Elphinstone Secondary and Gibsons Elementary School, making it easier and safer for students to participate.
