# Updates
Moving to an East Sooke wide focus
It took a while - especially with summer holidays and a fall election - but discussions with CRD Directors Al Wickheim & Paul Brent where much more productive. The conclusion is that it is best to approach this as a community wide issue rather than a single neighbourhood. So, onwards...
Stalling out with MOTI
Despite, a fair degree of communication and politely worded, the final answer from MOTI is essentially "that isn't in our normal procedure go pound sand", but maybe one day. With a slight hint that a direct request from the CRD would have more weight but likely be short term ignored as well.
Back to Politics... Road Safety
Been extremely out of active politics basically since the Langford - Juan de Fuca by-election. Extremely good reason and all but great to be getting back into active politics. Got a new reason to be majorly engaged too - a son - so now have a moral duty to try to make things better. First on my list right now is road safety.
# Introduction
Per the World Health Organization, “Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29 years.” The severity of pedestrian injuries/risk of fatalities in a front-on MVI (Motor Vehicle Incident) is largely dependent on speed: at 50kph the fatality rate is a shocking 80%; at 30kph the fatality rate decreases dramatically to 10%1.
Vision Zero2 a multi-national traffic safety initiative based on the philosophy that no one should be killed or seriously injured on the road is growing in popularity. One of the most effective and cheapest methods of road safety is reducing speed limits on local rural roads. Effective earlier this month, Duncan has set 30kph as the default speed limit unless otherwise signed, with connector roads at 40kph3
Is a change of the speed limit enough? Effective? After studies of jurisdictions that have done this show it is effective - a 17-20% reduction in injury crashes in downtown Seattle after they reduced speed limits by 5mph 4. US Department of Transport states "... a singular focus on speeding ignores the impact that even high, legal speeds can have on safety, since human injury tolerance can be exceeded even when drivers comply with the legal speed limit."5. Will people still speed? Almost certainly. But speeding 10k over the speed limit and doing 40kph is dramatically different risk level than doing 10 over and driving 60kph. Could other things be done? Absolutely. However, lowering and signing speed limits is the easiest and cheapest action yet is broadly shown to work.
# Park Heights Neighbourhood
We are a rural, residential neighbourhood of family homes. Children play here. Wildlife are often unpredictable and sometimes hazardous - with multiple fawn deaths most years due to MVIs. Road quality is variable with frequently poor sight lines and limited clear shoulders.
Many drivers who use Park Heights to access the East Sooke Regional Park are unfamiliar with the roads and sight lines. Many park visitors also walk along the road shoulder to access their hikes. All of these factors make our neighbourhood especially vulnerable to the kind of tragic accidents that can be reliably prevented by lower speed limits.
The single access point to our neighbourhood means that sufficient signage could be likely be achieved with only a single sign - making this a very affordable change.
Reducing our current speed limit of 50kph to 30kph would only increase maximum travel times within the neighbourhood by an average of 2 minutes. Those 2 minutes, however, could dramatically increase safety for all road users, and especially for our neighbourhood’s children!
This would include: Park Heights Dr, Callisto Rd, Jupiter Pl, Titan Pl, and Leda Rd.
# Get Involved
Do you also support a safer local road for our neighbourhood? A quick and easy support method is to sign the petition. If you're willing to do a bit more work, write a letter to the relevant people - the more of your own voice you put into the letter the bigger impact since form letters are generally ranked lower. Letters will be held until the petition is submitted and then all current ones will be sent. After that any letters will be sent as they are received.
Unlike within incorporated municipalities, roads in East Sooke are the responsibility of TranBC. We are also currently in the provincial riding of Langford - Juan de Fuca although that will change at the next provincial election (expected to be in October) when the planned electoral district changes take effect.
Who will this be going to? Currently the plan is to send the petition and any letters to the following three people.
- Al Wickheim, Electoral Area Director for Juan de Fuca
- Shawn Haley, Operations Manager, South Island Area, TranBC
- Ravi Parmar, MLA, Langford - Juan de Fuca
Letters and Petition may be sent to additional contacts if it becomes necessary given the cross jurisdictional issues and upcoming riding change/election.
Note: Register/Log in to have most of the forms autofill both now and in the future - as well as track your involvement.
Sign the Petition
Write a Letter
- 1
SPEED MANAGEMENT – ISBN 92-821-0377-3 - ECMT, 2006
- 2
What is Vision Zero, see also Vision Zero BC,
- 3
- 4
https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/lowering-speed-limits-makes-seattle-streets-safer
- 5
https://highways.dot.gov/sites/fhwa.dot.gov/files/Safe_System_Approach_for_Speed_Management.pdf