Pedestrians

According to the Association of School Transportation Services of British Columbia, travel by school bus is statistically the safest method of ground transportation in Canada and by a substantial margin. We all expect and demand nothing less when our children and grandchildren are riding those buses to and from schools and school related events. Surely all drivers should understand this and not hesitate to stop when the red lights on a stopped bus are flashing.

While the Walk Audit Tool Kit is a publication of the AARP, it's not just for seniors. It teaches how to assess and report on the safety and walkability of a street, intersection or neighbourhood, hoping to inspire any needed changes. Anyone who walks can use information from the kit to do an audit.

We are seeing significant changes to city streets that create more room for transportation modes other than the automobile. Your opinion of these changes likely depends whether you are inside or outside of that automobile. Is it an informed opinion? Where do you find information on how these things work? Good questions!

A common message that arrives in the DriveSmartBC inbox concerns the perception of a local problem and either no response or an unexpected response from local government. The writer is usually looking for someone to solve their problem for them with little or no effort on their part beyond the initial complaint. Chances are excellent that the problem will continue to be a problem unless there is a concerted effort to resolve it.

Every year an average of 52 pedestrians are killed and 2.400 are injured by collisions in B.C. These incidents typically take place at night or when visibility is poor. While there is no law requiring that pedestrians take steps to make themselves more visible to drivers in times of low visibility it simply makes sense to protect yourself when crossing or walking along the road.

The City of St. Paul, Minnesota has created an innovative program to increase driver compliance with the requirement to yield to pedestrians at unsignalized marked crosswalks in the city. Prior to this initiative, The study initially observed 32% of drivers yielding and frequent multiple threat passing incidents.

Road Guy Rob examines a highway reconstruction project that rebuilt a highway through town. Raised medians were installed to separate the opposing lanes. He discusses two types of raised medians looking at how they are built, what they do and how they can be used to add safety features for pedestrians and cyclists.

The case of R v Francisco involves a collision on June 7, 2019 in Burnaby that resulted in the death of a pedestrian, Louise Landreth. Roberto Francisco was driving a BMW sedan erratically over a period of about one hour and twenty minutes until a collision at high speed resulted in a loss of control and Ms. Landreth being struck and killed.

Six small towns in British Columbia have been singled out for their leadership in Active Transportation. Burns Lake, Duncan, Gibsons, Nelson, Powell River and Rossland were examined for their efforts in promoting Active Transportation. The resulting report aims to assist other communities to improve Active Transportation within their boundaries by explaining the success of the six.