Government

Premier John Horgan has issued letters of expectation to the heads of the government ministries. There is mention of reducing ICBC rates, but no direct instruction on improving road safety. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure says that the ministry's responsibilities, which includes highway construction, maintenance and operations are central to safety.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has released the 2020 version of the Traffic Management Manual for Work on Roadways. This is essentially an 815 page textbook outlining fundamental principles and guidelines for traffic management and traffic control in work zones. The goal is to ensure the protection of workers and the safe and efficient movement of road users through the work zone.

Belair Direct, the auto insurance arm of Intact Insurance has announced that it will stop selling auto policies in BC effective December 1, 2020 and renewing policies on January 1, 2021. They see ICBC’s recent regulatory changes and the province’s current auto insurance market conditions as having reduced opportunities for the private sector to compete.

The City of Surrey has released a year in review report for 2019 detailing it's accomplishments in meeting Vision Zero commitments. The City’s goal is an achievable and measurable shorter-term target: to reverse the trend of rising injuries and deaths on Surrey’s roads and achieve a minimum 15% reduction in injury collisions over the next five years (2019-2023).

Transport Canada has announced a new lighting standard aimed at preventing phantom vehicles, or vehicles being driven at night with no rear lights illuminated. As of September 2021 the Canadian Vehicle Lighting Regulation will mandate that new vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs, 3-wheeled vehicles, motorcycles and heavy trucks) sold in Canada must implement one of the following:

Our provincial government has brought the majority of the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act into force effective on July 30, 2020. The aim of the act is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by regulating the sale of zero-emission vehicles. Starting in 2025, at least 10% of new light duty vehicles sold in BC must be zero emission.

Last September the Parents Advisory Committee (PAC) at the Ecole Oceanside Elementary School in Parksville asked me to help establishing a crossing guard program for what they considered to be a dangerous intersection at one corner of the school grounds. In past, the principal had raised the issue of liability concerns that needed to be looked into and that was the end of the conversation.

In 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:

The B.C. Coroner's Service has released a report that summarizes all accidental, traffic-related pedestrian deaths that occurred between January 1, 2012, and November 30, 2021.

When I was posted in the Okanagan in the 1990s I was answering phones in the detachment dispatch office. A caller from Summerland asked what would happen if he decided to take his protest sign down to the highway and conduct his own personal blockade. He expressed the opinion that if he did that the police would arrive quickly and if he did not move he would be removed.