REPORT - BC Communities Road Safety Survey

BC LogoIn December of 2015 RoadSafetyBC published the BC Communities Road Safety Survey. It's goal was to provide an overview of the municipal road safety activities and identify the challenges that might be limiting progress towards the goal of having the safest roads in North America by 2020.

Of 189 municipalities in the province, 81 responded. Those responses raised the following points:

  • Municipal councils, staff and community members consider road safety a priority
  • Formal road safety program components are rare
  • More than half of municipalities allocated less than 8% of their transportation budget to road safety
  • The top two safety issues were vehicle speeds and pedestrian safety
  • Of 24 potential road safety program elements only three were in place in more than half of the participating municipalities
  • Of 12 potential road safety stakeholders that might provide input on road safety police provided input to almost all participating municipalities
  • Of 9 potential sources of road safety data most municipalities used public comments and complaints

I've asked RoadSafetyBC if anything was done to follow up on the report and will post any response here when it is received.

Link:

The BC Communities Road Safety Survey was conducted to gather information on road safety issues and actions in British Columbia’s municipalities. The survey found that many municipalities experience issues with vehicle speeds, pedestrian safety, distracted driving, winter driving, cyclist safety, commercial vehicles, and intersection design, among others. Another important finding was that many municipalities want more knowledge and resources on road safety planning and interventions.

The survey led to the creation of the BC Community Road Safety Toolkit, an easily-accessible and electronically-searchable resource that addresses many of the local issues identified in the survey. The toolkit was designed to help close the knowledge gap by providing a broad resource on both proven and innovative interventions that municipalities can undertake. The toolkit also supports Vision Zero, bringing together all of BC’s road safety partners towards the ultimate goal of zero traffic fatalities and zero serious injuries.

The toolkit’s first module was officially launched on December 8, 2016. Over the past two years, RoadSafetyBC has promoted and delivered the toolkit with road safety partners at various events and publications. Specifically, RoadSafetyBC attended local government meetings throughout the province (in Powell River, Castlegar, Penticton, Williams Lake, and Harrison Hot Springs). RoadSafetyBC also delivered the toolkit at the Chilliwack Traffic Safety Committee in June 2019.

RoadSafetyBC continues to look for deliveries to collaborate with local governments and ensure that the toolkit is easily and readily available to all municipalities across the province.

I like the overhead picture of the intersection at Burrard & Pacific. They spent something like 125 million on improvements (mostly without having to entirely close off the Burrard Bridge) and I have to say, it all works very well for all road users.

Particularly as the pedestrians, cyclists, and other traffic are all mostly separated from conflict, if they're obeying the various traffic lights.