On January 21 staff from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure presented their Hwy 101 Corridor Study to the Transportation Advisory Committee. I came away from the experience feeling like a patient with a badly broken leg who is handed a couple of bandaids and a magazine and told that the doctor will check their condition in 2035.
As I’ve said before, the study answers a great many questions that nobody asked, and fails to respond to questions that residents have posed repeatedly about the deteriorating condition of the road and its safety, especially for pedestrians.
Here’s a slide from the MOTI presentation showing the study’s six objectives, not one of which was met.
The entire approach taken to “Active Transportation” (locally defined as pedestrians fleeing in terror from oncoming traffic) was to add some shoulders on stretches of road that need improvement in order to better service vehicles. Other highlights: the section of highway that’s slumping into Chaster Creek ravine is described as “gaps in sidewalk,” while “short term” was defined as up to 10 years, and the study was based on traffic data that hadn’t been updated since 2017.
And now MOTI is proposing to add a southbound passing lane between Lower Road and Leek Road. We all know that Rat Portage hill is a raceway and traffic merges back onto the highway at over 100 km/hr. That’s just what we need at Woodcreek Park where we’ve already had a pedestrian fatality.
Oh dear, do I sound angry? No kidding. I don’t believe that YouTube actually shows the steam pouring out of my ears, but believe me, it was there.
I don’t know who the “stakeholders” are that MOTI claims to have consulted, but it most certainly was not the elected representatives of our local governments or the public.
Just last week traffic had to be diverted around Davis Bay because storm conditions sent waves and driftwood crashing across our highway. The solution we’re offered? A few turning lanes and yet another vague promise to “study” a Gibsons bypass.
And what about all of our OTHER rural roads? Crickets.
(Read TAC story in The Local Weekly)
