Question: What I would like to know who and how to petition to get better speed signage or to have an intersection evaluated for safety. Please respond to my query as I would like to campaign to make a change at an intersection near my home before the 'near misses' that happen there regularly become more serious.
I live close to the intersection of Raynor and Craigflower Roads which have a marked crosswalk that is frequently used by young families, the elementary school, and a preschool to access Banfield Park. Today what happened was too close of a call from me to just let this incident slide.
My Story
I was crossing with my two daughters, a 4 year old and a 3 month old. We waited for traffic to stop travelling north on Craigflower, and another car that had stopped a distance away to the south.
The driver from the south must have been distracted as he started moving again. It is a downhill slope he came upon the crosswalk very quickly.
The opposing traffic honked their horns to get the driver's attention and I pulled myself and daughter back a few steps to avoid being hit.
He did stop before the cross walk thankfully.
Incidents Happen Frequently
This is not the first time this type of incident has happened, about 3 weeks ago I had cars stop for me at the crosswalk but then the second car behind them didn't stop in time and caused a fender bender.
The Crosswalk and Approaches
At either 40 or 50 km/h there are plenty of signs warning of the crosswalk, not to mention the painted crosswalk itself. It also appears that there is no problem seeing into the intersection from all approaches.
I even see a 30 km/h speed sign for northbound traffic south of the intersection and another one for southbound traffic north of the traffic lights.
The photos are from June 2012 by the look of it. Has the speed zone changed since then?
Suggested Improvement
It would depend on the amount of foot traffic I would think, but if it is high, then the only suggestion that I might make is to try and have the city install a pedestrian activated flashing amber lights at the crosswalk. They seem to work very well when I encounter them.
Unfortunately, they are likely expensive and it may be hard to convince the city to act.
Victoria's Pedestrian Master Plan
I glanced over the pedestrian master plan. At 247 pages it is a big document to go through but it is supposed to show how streets are prioritized for improvements. It does mention a database for public complaint information to drive change and does mention Craigflower in relation to Sunnyside.
What to Petition For
Now that you have some background on the issue from the City's side you need to decide what to petition for. Is it engineering, enforcement or both?
You could contact Engineering and ask what might be done.
Similarly you should also complain to the Victoria Police Department. If no one complains, it's easy to think that the problem doesn't exist.
ICBC's Road Safety Delivery Team has a co-ordinator for Victoria who sits on the CRD Traffic Safety Commission board. You may be able to involve them as well.
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And for the rest of us who don't live in Victoria how might we contact someone to comment on safety issues etc?
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If you live in a municipality it would be that municipality. If not, it's the Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure.
The list of ICBC contacts in the article covers the entire province.
Of course, the police cover the entire province as well.
There may be road safety groups like community policing or a traffic safety committee for municipal council. The ICBC person from the list will likely know if they exist and who to contact.
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Don't Live in Victoria